§ Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALDasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state the actual cost of bread, butter, jam, cheese, bacon, meat, oatmeal, tea, and sugar on the 1st June, and the price on the 1st March last?
Mr. RUNCIMANThe following are the average prices paid by the working classes for certain articles of food at 1st March, 1915, and 1st June, 1915:
(The figures relate to the average of retail prices in eighty of the principal towns of the United Kingdom.) Article. Average Price per lb. (except bread—4 lbs.) 1 Mar., 1915. 1 June, 1915. s. d. s. d. Bread 7¾ 8½ Butter: Fresh 1 4½ 1 5 Salt 1 3¾ 1 4¼ Jam* 5¾ 5¾ Cheese 10¼ 11½ Bacon† 1 0 1 1 Beef, British: Ribs 11 1 1¾ Thin Flank 7¾ 9½ Beef, Chilled or Frozen: Ribs 8¾ 10¼ Thin Flank 6½ 7¾ Mutton, British: Leg 11¼ 1 1¼ Breast 7½ 9 Mutton, Frozen: Leg 8¼ 9¼ Breast 5½ 6½ Oatmeal, Scotch 2¾ 2¾ Tea 1 9¼ 1 10¾ Sugar (Granulated) 3½ 3½ * The figures stated are the means of the prices of three popular kinds of jam. † The kind of bacon enumerated on the form of enquiry is "streaky," but in places in which such bacon has only a small sale, the price of the popular local variety is substituted.