§ 78. Major Legge-Bourkeasked the Minister of Food if he will give a list, as per head of the population of Great Britain, of the amount of fresh, corned and tinned meat, bacon and ham, butter and margarine, lard, flour, jam, sugar cheese, dried fruit, liquid milk and eggs available in 1938 and now; and what alterations may be expected in the next six months.
§ Mr. Stracheyit is not practicable to reply to the precise terms of the Question, firstly, because statistics of supplies moving into consumption are available for the United Kingdom only, and not for Great Britain separately, and, secondly, because complete statistical information is not readily available for the year 1938. It is preferable in any case to use annual averages for the five years preceding the outbreak of war, because averages tend to reduce the effects of year to year changes and therefore provide a better basis for comparison than do the figures for any single prewar year. Comparisons of the current position with prewar can be made in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most convenient is to compare the average distribution figures with the prewar averages which are published in the Statistical Digest, but care must be taken in making such comparisons as they may give rise to misleading conclusions. The distribution figures quoted in the Digest include supplies to the Services stationed in or supplied from this country and in certain cases supplies for export also, but these are at present negligible. Estimates for the second half of this year are given below—they naturally differ in some particulars from the figures previously given for the three months June, July and August, 1946.
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In the case of sugar our consumption was fixed at a rate equal to that of the U.S.A., namely about 72lb. per capita. In addition the civilian public have had the benefit of such savings as have been made in the distribution to His Majesty's Forces. The second part of the Question can be answered only in very general terms since supplies in the next six months will obviously be influenced by a variety of factors, the effects of which are difficult to predict.
SUPPLIES MOVING INTO CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. lb. per head per annum. Commodity. Pre-war annual average (estimated). Second half of 1946 (estimated). Fresh Meat 99.2 84.5 Canned Corned Meat 2.1 6.1 Other Canned Meat 0.8 10.1 Bacon and Ham 27.3 14.1 Butter 24.8 10.2 Margarine 9.0 15.4 Lard 9.3 7.0 Flour (for food in the U.K.). 194.5 208.5 Jam and Marmalade 10.1 12.5 Dried Fruit 8.0 8.8 Cheese 8.8 8.9 Milk (liquid consumption) 216.9 269.0 Eggs in shell 21.8 9.4