§ Mr. Lewisasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his policy of not encouraging housewives to keep more than one week's supply of non-perishable foodstuffs, means that the Government have not merely assured themselves that no useful purpose would be served by further increasing the stock of such foodstuffs in this country, but that they are satisfied that prolonged and intensive bombing by hostile aeroplanes could not interrupt under any circumstances, the distribution of existing supplies for more than a few days at a time?
§ Mr. StanleyThe Government are making plans for the maintenance of adequate supplies of foodstuffs for the country in time of war. I stated in the reply which I gave on the 2nd February that household reserves would be regarded as a source of additional security and I informed my hon. Friend, in reply to his supplementary question, that one of the considerations in my mind in suggesting the limit to the scale of these reserves was the desirability of avoiding a rise in the prices of the commodities. I see no reason to modify the terms of my previous reply.