§ Mr. OLIVER LOCKER-LAMPSONasked the President of the Board of Trade whether it has been brought to his knowledge that quantities of farm produce, especially potatoes, are lying deteriorating in the Ramsey (Huntingdonshire) district owing to the scarcity of the necessary railway trucks to convey them to the wholesale markets from the Great Eastern and Great Northern joint railway stations; can he hold out any hope that extra facilities for the conveyance of agricultural produce by rail will be available in the near future, seeing that, owing to the scarcity of supplies reaching the various markets, it is unnecessarily increasing the cost of living to the poor; and whether he proposes, to take any steps whereby this necessary article of food may be conveyed from the agricultural areas to the distributing wholesale markets, seeing that deterioration is not only causing loss to the agriculturists as well as the merchants' staffs remaining idle, but the food supply of the nation is being held up for the want of the necessary railway facilities?
Mr. RUNCIMANThe hon. Member forwarded me a complaint on this subject, and I have asked the railway companies concerned for their observations. I will communicate with him as soon as I receive their replies.