Lieut.-Colonel CLAYasked the Food Controller if lie will fix the price per barrel for beer at the various gravities as between brewer and tenant; whether any insuperable obstacle stands in the way of his doing so; why brewers have preferential treatment as regards the wholesale price of their commodities when retail prices are fixed by the Ministry of Food and spirit prices, both wholesale and retail, are controlled by him; and will he have gravities 1138W marked on barrels instead of prices, as at present, and thus denote their real cons tents?
§ Mr. McCURDYOwing to the great variation in conditions prevailing all over the country it has been found to be impracticable to fix maximum wholesale prices for beer. I way say however, that local committees consisting jointly of local brewers and retailers have been set up for dealing with any disagreements which may arise as to wholesale prices; and that a Conciliation Board, consisting of an equal number of brewers and retailers has been established to deal with any case in which the local committees fail to agree. I would like to add that it has only been necessary to call the Conciliation Board together on three occasions and that the Board has reached an unanimous decision on each of the seven cases which were brought before it. In these circumstances, I do not consider that I should be justified in departing from the present arrangements for dealing with wholesale prices of beer. In regard to the last part of the question, as the Food Controller informed the hon. and gallant Member on 11th July last, the present permitted range enables customers to obtain beer of rather superior quality to the minimum prescribed gravity in each category without any increase of price. Brewers are already compelled to mark clearly on each barrel the retail price of time contents, and this affords a guarantee that the gravity is not less than the prescribed minimum in the category to which the price relates.