§ Captain CARR-GOMMasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he has received a resolution from associations of butchers in London protesting against the action of the Ministry in bringing into operation the rationing scheme without issuing the new schedule of prices agreed to by the Ministry as the just claim of the trade, in view of the increased labour involved, and complaining further that the Ministry has not placed lean cows in a grade by themselves as boners at a price equitable to their food value as originally agreed upon; and, if so, whether he will make a statement with a view to meeting the complaints that have been made?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe resolution in question has only just been received by the Ministry of Food, and will be acknowledged in due course. The new schedule of prices referred to was issued at the earliest possible moment, and came into operation on the 4th March. The question of the price of cattle fit only for boning is at present under consideration as part of an Amending Order dealing with cattle sales, which it is hoped to issue at an early date.
Colonel THORNEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether each person buying meat at Birkenhead must have a permit or authorisation of some sort from his Department; whether all meat bought there for dispatch to London must be bought on behalf of the Wholesale Association of Smithfield; if these are the only buyers permitted, how can his Department repudiate responsibility for the condition of the tuberculous beef sent to London; whether his agents took advantage of the illness of the Birkenhead meat inspector to send this rubbish to London; and 48W whether he proposes to suspend the guilty persons from any ether operations in the Birkenhead market?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe answers to the first, second, and fourth parts of the question are in the negative; the remainder does not, therefore, arise.