§ Mr. Sorensenasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of the actual or possible rise in retail prices of imported and other commodities purchased by natives without a corresponding rise either in wages or in raw materials sold by the natives, he will 229W consider minimising the resultant hardship by effecting some means of stabilising those prices at a reasonable level?
§ Mr. George HallThe protection of Colonial populations as far as possible from the economic effects of war-time conditions is under constant consideration, but I fear that there would be insuperable practical difficulties in any general scheme of stabilisation of the prices of imports into the Colonial dependencies. Some increases are unfortunately inevitable in view of increased freight and manufacturing costs, but the Colonial authorities already have machinery which enables them to control prices in order to prevent undue profiteering.