Lieut.-Colonel GUINNESSasked the Food Controller whether the maximum retail prices of milk for the next three months have been fixed in the Thingoe district of Suffolk, by the Food Commissioner at Cambridge, at prices 8d. below the monthly maximum fixed by the Ministry of Food; whether, in spite of the small proportion of pasture in Suffolk, these prices are 6d. less than those authorised for dairying counties such as Somersetshire; and whether, in view of the fact that the Thingoe Food Control Committee were never consulted as to the price and have made strong objection to it, the Ministry of Food will reconsider the matter and vary the decision of the Food Commissioner at Cambridge, in view of the undertaking given on 1st May that local food control committees would always be consulted before prices were determined?
§ Mr. McCURDYThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The question of the proportion of pasture land in Suffolk affects, not the retailers' margin, but the price paid to the farmer, which is 2d. per gallon higher in Suffolk than in Somerset. The average retail margin allowed in Thingoe for the five summer months is 6 3–5d. per gallon, an increase of 1 3–5d. per gallon on the margin allowed last winter, and is approximately the same as the margin in rural districts in Somerset. With reference to the last part of the question, I am informed that the local food control committee was called into consultation before the fixing of the price, and that no protest on the subject has been received by the Ministry of Food.