§ Rear-Admiral Beamishasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he will investigate the contention of infant food manufacturers that they are faced with the total destruction of their business unless steps are taken to see either that they have an adequate return on the supplies of national milk powder which they are packing for the Government or a similar subsidy given them to enable them to keep their products in the market and sell at the same price as the State article?
§ Mr. BoothbyNational dried milk will be available only to infants not more than 12 months old for whom a doctor certifies that dried milk is necessary, and it will be issued only in lieu of the one pint of liquid milk per day to which they would otherwise be entitled under the national milk scheme. Proprietary infant foods, I am informed, are sold to a very much wider section of the population. National dried milk will be issued either free or at 1s. 2d. per packet containing a quantity equal to seven pints of liquid milk. These terms are equivalent to the terms (i.e., free or at 2d. per pint according to the means of the parents) on which liquid milk would be supplied were the child able to consume liquid milk. The price to 33W be paid to manufacturers for national dried milk is at present under negotiation, but I cannot hold out any hope of a subsidy on proprietary foods.