§ Lieutenant W. Shepherdasked the President of the Board of Trade what steps he proposes to take to avoid excessive prices for Christmas cards and toys.
§ Sir S. CrippsAs regards toys, I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to my reply to the hon. and gallant Member for North Portsmouth (Major Bruce) on 29th October. Christmas cards are price-regulated articles under the Prices of Goods Act, 1939, and if any specific cases of overcharging are reported to the Local Price Regulation Committees, they will make investigations. I should add, however, that practically no complaints about these goods have been made to the Committees, and I do not consider them a sufficiently important item of expenditure to justify making a special request to the Committees to allocate to them the time of the limited staff available.