HC Deb 10 October 1945 vol 414 cc259-60W
Sir J. Mellor

asked the President of the Board of Trade why he approved the sale by the manufacturers, for the benefit of charities, of undelivered duty-free parcels of tobacco and cigarettes, addressed to British prisoners of war in Germany, without any refund being offered to the individuals who ordered the parcels to be despatched.

Mr. Ellis Smith

At the end of the European war many parcels could not, for obvious reasons, be delivered, and the only satisfactory way of dealing with them was to sell the parcels back to the manufacturers and to hand the proceeds to Committees of Service Comforts Funds. Due notice of this intention was given in the Press by the Council of Tobazcco Manufacturers and no objections were raised. In the majority of cases it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to trace the original consignors.