§ Major Nieldasked the Secretary of State for War if, after consulting the Postmaster-General, he will consider sanctioning the sending of parcels of foodstuffs of reasonable size and weight by parents and others in this country to soldiers serving in Normandy.
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§ Sir J. GriggAs I said in the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Mr. Bartlett) on 18th July, it is a Board of Trade Regulation which prevents parcels containing foodstuffs from being sent to troops overseas. The adoption of my hon. and gallant Friend's proposal would increase considerably the traffic of parcels to Normandy and might well delay the service. Moreover, owing to changes of location and other disturbances which are inevitable in areas of active operations some delays in delivery cannot be avoided, and in the case of parcels of foodstuffs this would lead to waste. In these circumstances it does not seem to me that the time has yet come to consider with my right hon. Friend whether the Board of Trade Regulation should be relaxed.