Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 26 Gorffennaf 1935.
I do not want to prolong the debate unduly, but, notwithstanding the assurance of the right hon. Gentleman that the approval of the Amendments will only be provisional, they involve the opinion of the House upon the principle which is contained in the proposals. It is upon that matter that I wish to say a few words. During the passage of the 1931 Act through this House, I resisted all the time a very large number of Amendments which would have had the effect of conferring upon the producers power to limit quantity, and there is no power of that kind in the 1931 Act because of that profound objection on my part. I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman would agree that I have not been a captious critic of his proposals, but I am satisfied that the experience of the last four years abundantly justifies the apprehension which led to my opposition. It is not right that a producers' board should be equipped with power to limit the production of other producers. If that is to be done at all, it should be by a board which has no interest in production; by, as we suggested, an agricultural commission—no matter what you call it—that has no special interest in the matter.
There are other objections equally important in this matter of the method of approach. We recognise that if you are to have an organised and orderly market scheme you must have reasonable information as to forthcoming supplies because you must be able to deal with the market in an orderly and sensible way. That is a quite different scheme from what is now proposed. It would be quite proper for the appropriate board to have quarterly or monthly returns as to supplies which were likely to be forthcoming. The purpose of the power of quantitative restriction, for that is what this is, is not to facilitate the better supplying of the needs of the market; the design behind it is to sustain prices. We take the view that although it is necessary to have a managed price system and to have stability in prices, you should not seek to attain your purpose by the power to impose a shortage. That is the wrong way to set about it. You have no right to impose a shortage. What will actually happen? If there is a programme to increase production by five per cent. or whatever it is, existing producers would be entitled to increase their production by that percentage. There are, perhaps, 120,000 producers. It is anyhow a very large number, and is somewhere round about that figure, and they are all subject to ordinary human mortality. Suppose a man dies who produces 100 pigs a quarter, or it may be only 20, what is going to happen? That supply disappears. Another man gets tired and goes in for market gardening or does something else—