asked the President of the Board of Trade the names of the members of the Food Council?

As I stated on the 25th June, in reply to questions by hon. Members, the Chairmanship of the Food Council has been accepted by Lord Bradbury.

The other members of the Council are:

• Mr. G. A. Powell, C.B.E., Clerk to the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and member of the Royal Commission on Food Prices;
• Mr. F. W. Birchenough, J.P., General Secretary to the Oldham Operative Cotton Spinners' Provincial Association, and Chairman of the Management Committee of the General Federation of Trades Unions;
• Alderman Charles H. Bird, C.B.E., J.P., member of the Corporation of Cardiff;
• Mrs. B. M. Drapper, J.P., Chairman of the Greenwich Board of Guardians and of the Public Health Committee of the Deptford Borough Council;
• Mr. W. E. Dudley, O.B.E., J.P., Director of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, and member of the Royal Commission on Food Prices;
• Mr. A. E. Faulkner, C.B., C.B.E., Director of Sea Transport, Board of Trade;
• Sir Gilbert F. Garnsey, K.B.E., partner in the firm of Price, Waterhouse and Company;
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• Sir John Lorne MacLeod, G.B.E, ex Provost of Edinburgh, ex-Food Controller for Scotland, and member of the Royal Commission on Food Prices;
• Mr. C. S. Orwin, M.A., Director of the Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics at Oxford University;
• Mr. Isaac Stephenson, J.P., ex-President of the National Chamber of Trade, and member of the Royal Commission on Food Prices; and
• Mrs. Wilson, who gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Food Prices.

Is it proposed that the Council shall meet at regular intervals?

Yes: I hope that their first meeting will take place this week.

Is it not a fact that this list includes only one official trade unionist, and that the recommendation of the Royal Commission was that there should be two trade union representatives?

I think that when the names are studied it will be generally agreed that the Council is given a very wide representation, and that all the people are selected as being likely to render the most efficient service.

But we understood that the Government had adopted the recommendations of the Royal Commission; hence my question Could the right hon. Gentleman say whether the Trade. Union Congress has been consulted as to the trade union representation?

Can the right hon. Gentleman say if nobody on this body is to be in association with the production of food from British lands?

Yes. My hon. Friend will observe that among the Members included is Mr. Orwin, the Director of the Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics at Oxford University. [Interruption.] I hesitate to differ from my hon. Friend, but I am advised by those who have the interests of agriculture at heart that he is one of the ablest people connected with agricultural development in this country.

What about food production?

Is that not agriculture? With regard to the point put by the hon. Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander), it was the duty of the Prime Minister and the Government, as they conceived it, to secure the most efficient Council that they could. The responsibility of this appointment is theirs, and they accept that responsibility.

Are we to understand from that answer that the Government have, in appointing this Council, had no consultation at all with either trade union or consumers' representatives?

HON. MEMBERS: Why should they?