Lieut.-Colonel Geoffrey Clifton-Brown:

asked the President of the Board of Trade if the large quantity of high quality unbleached calico now being made into flour bags will be issued for making up into sheets for household use and some other coarser material allotted for flour bags

The unbleached cloth used for large flour bags is a special product of which the maximum output is barely sufficient to meet the flour millers' needs. The cloth is too narrow for sheets and the weavers concerned could not weave wider cloths on their looms. I regret that in the circumstances a transfer of production such as the hon. and gallant Member suggests would not be practicable.

Lieut.-Colonel Clifton-Brown:

Why is it necessary for this first-class material to be used now, when in the old days cheaper and coarser material was found to be perfectly satisfactory?

I understand that a very tine material is necessary to prevent leakage from flour bags, and it is for that purpose that this material has been designed.

Would it not be possible to use a type of paper for this kind of bag, as in the case of cement and other commodities, which used to be packed in textiles?

I am not a specialist on this matter, but I understand that it is not possible, besides which there is a great shortage of paper bags.