§ 9. Mr. Shepherdasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will make a statement regarding the future control over the number of pages printed by newspapers.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftOn 15th August last I announced the Government's intention to remove all statutory controls over the delivery of newsprint and the size of newspapers, provided that satisfactory arrangements could be made among the newspapers to meet the needs of the small users. All the newspapers, however, with one exception have asked that rationing by statutory control should be continued for the time being, and have told me that they are unable to safeguard the position of the small users. In such circumstances I have decided that the necessary Order continuing the control should be laid before Parliament. I propose, however, to license an increased number of pages forThe Times. I am doing this because this newspaper now intends to use exclusively a type of paper other than newsprint, which will be obtained entirely from new capacity, and will release to other newspapers all the newsprint it would otherwise have used.