§ Sir L. Lyleasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether, to avoid the black market, he will prescribe that no firm, dealing in food, should be allowed to handle any products which they have not been in the habit of handling previous to the war; and what objections there are to such a regulation?
Major Lloyd GeorgeThe policy of my Department as regards the issue of licences to traders who were not dealing in a commodity before the war has already been indicated in the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Mr. Lipson) on 6th August. Whilst it is intended to withhold licences from traders not dealing in a commodity before the war who have recently affected only casual dealings in that commodity, it would not be generally in the interest of consumers to prevent a trader who is now regularly distributing a commodity in the normal course of his business from continuing to do so solely on the ground that he was not handling it two years ago.