§ Commander Nobleasked the Minister of Food what proportion of points available to the grocers of this country are not used owing to the inability of his Department to provide the pointed foodstuffs sought by the public.
§ Mr. StracheyWe have no recent figures of the proportion of unused points standing to the credit of grocers. Releases of points foods are in total sufficient to honour the points entitlement, but it is 89W not possible, nor have we ever undertaken, to satisfy in full the demand for some of the more popular scarce varieties such as canned meat, canned fish, canned milk, and canned fruit. Arrangements have, however, been made for these foods to be allocated to grocers on the basis of registrations for certain rationed foods, so as to ensure that the available supplies are distributed as fairly as possible.