§ 50. Mr. Doddsasked the President of the Board of Trade why his Department is offering 329 tons of calcined carbonate of potash to the public as surplus stock when much of it was only taken into stock between March and July 1955; and for what purpose it was purchased.
§ Mr. LowThis material is being offered for sale in accordance with the policy, announced in the Defence White Paper, of running down to some extent the strategic holdings of industrial raw materials. As carbonate of potash will not keep indefinitely, the strategic stock has to be turned over. Thus the material now offered for sale was bought in the normal course of turnover operations in 1954 and 1955 to replace material sold to avoid deterioration. It it not the practice to reveal the purpose for which strategic stocks were acquired.