§ Mr. W. THORNEasked the Minister of Food whether, as the monthly labour review of the United States Bureau of Labour statistics for September, 1918, in an investigation of rising food prices, give the price of hogs in Chicago at 15 cents per lb. in the late summer and fall of 1916 and the Departmental Committee on Food Prices state that the best American bacon was selling in retail shops in Liverpool at the same period at 1s. 2d. per lb. in sliced rashers and 11d. per lb. in the piece, so that the margin between live hog prices in America and retail bacon prices can be accurately stated as being from 4½d. to 5d. per lb., and as it has now risen to a figure of 18.5d. per lb., of imported bacon, or nearly four times as much, and as this rise has taken place independently of freights, which have only 920W risen about ½d. per lb., he will state the main figures of increased cost which have produced this abnormal rise?
§ Mr. McCURDYThe Report of the Departmental Committee on Prices, 1916, only gives particulars of the retail prices of a certain variety of bacon in a particularly low-priced area; and it is not clear from the Report whether the prices quoted are for green or smoked bacon. It is not, therefore, possible to institute a comparison, as the hon. Member attempts to do, between these prices and the average of the highest retail prices of smoked bacon. I may say, however, that there has been a large increase in the margin between the price of live hogs in Chicago and the average retail price of bacon in this country to-day, as compared with 1916. The principal causes of this rise are: The large increase in manufacturing, storing, transport and insurance charges due to the general higher level of wages and living, the decreased purchasing power of the £1 sterling in America, the greater shrinkage and waste on a perishable article owing to delays in inland and ocean transport, and the increased margins necessary for processing and trade profits which are naturally much higher in pence per lb. on an article costing considerably more than in 1916. Moreover, the full advantage of the lower level of hog prices in America, will not be felt in this country until supplies cured from the winter run of hogs arrive and reach the retail shops early in the new year.