Mr. De la Béreasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is now in a position to make some further pronouncement regarding the West African Cocoa Control Scheme.
§ Colonel StanleyYes, Sir. In accordance with the undertaking given in the White Paper on Cocoa Control in West Africa (Cmd. 6554), I propose, in presenting the Colonial Estimates for the next financial year, to ask Parliament to vote a grant equivalent to the profits disclosed in Part I of that Paper for allocation to the Governments of the Gold Coast and Nigeria and to the Government of the French Cameroons. So far as the British Colonies are concerned, it remains my intention that the funds made available should be employed partly to meet expenditure on the cocoa research scheme and partly to provide finance for future marketing organisations. I should propose, however, to instruct the two Governments concerned that the funds provided for the latter purpose should not be drawn on to establish or finance such organisations until I have laid a detailed scheme before Parliament and given the House an opportunity of debating it.
As regards next season, it now appears more certain than at the time the Command Paper was presented to Parliament that there will be no substantial change before the end of the 1945–46 season in the present conditions whereby all cocoa is subject to allocation by the Combined Food Board, and that therefore the bulk of the marketing work will still have to be done in London. In these circumstances I have decided that no new marketing scheme shall be brought into operation for the 1945–46 season, but that control of marketing shall remain for the time being with the West African Produce Control Board.