§ Mr. A. T. DAVIESasked the President of the Board of Trade whether the Royal Commission on Wheat Supplies is a temporary Department; what is the cost monthly of that Department; wherein lies the special need for this Department, seeing that the Royal Commission on Sugar Supplies has ceased to exist as a separate Department; and how long it is proposed to maintain the Wheat Commission as a separate establishment before the transfer of its duties, as in the case of the Sugar Commission?
§ Viscount WOLMERThe Royal Commission on Wheat Supplies is a temporary Department; the staff is being steadily reduced, the cost of administration during June, 1923, being £655. There are at the720W present moment claims outstanding amounting approximately to £6,000,000, including matters which are either under arbitration or in litigaton. It is not possible at present to give any definite date by which the Wheat Commission can be wound up, and I may add that its circumstances are not analogous to those of the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply.