Mr James Reid: Does that mean that the dock strike not only delayed our supplies, but diminished the total quantity of meat we shall receive in the year?
Mr James Reid: A year ago there were still some people who thought it possible to argue that ours was a well-fed nation and that there was no need to worry about the future of our food supplies. Since the publication of the Economic Survey for 1948 that argument is no longer open to anyone. At page 52 of that document the Committee will see set out the precise respects in which there has been a fall in the...
Mr James Reid: The right hon. Gentleman says, "No, no." If he looks at the OFFICIAL REPORT of 21St January of this year, he will see that the Parliamentary Secretary said, with regard to applications by employers for extra food for their workers: We do not discourage anybody, but, applications having been made, we allow the Advisory Committee of the T.U.C. to decide the matter."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 21st...
Mr James Reid: If the right hon. Gentleman never acts against their advice in either direction—and we have never heard of a case where he did—then plainly the Parliamentary Secretary was right when she said, and she did in the House, "We leave it to the T.U.C. to decide."
Mr James Reid: The right hon. Gentleman never has, in fact, disregarded it, as far as I know—perhaps he will tell us. Therefore, I think the Parliamentary Secretary was accurate in using the word "decide." But they can have that out between themselves.
Mr James Reid: I wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman if he would be good enough, in the course of his speech, to tell us what he regards as the prospects for this country in the future. We have heard from many quarters that the world food shortage, which has always existed, is likely to get worse. On the other hand, the right hon. Gentleman has on several occasions approached the matter from a different...
Mr James Reid: No, what I said was that obviously we must finance the purchase of feedingstuffs by Eire, and I wanted to know how that fitted in with not depriving us of what we needed?
Mr James Reid: The right hon. Gentleman is expressly denying what Mr. Dillon, the Eire Minister of Agriculture has said. Let me repeat it to him and see if he denies it. He said that he found an inquiry waiting on his desk for him from the British Ministry of Food asking for "unlimited supplies of canned horse meat." That is what Mr. Dillon said. Is that wrong?
Mr James Reid: May we have detailed figures about that?
Mr James Reid: No.
Mr James Reid: In contracts?
Mr James Reid: Is it not the case that the Food Estimates cover the groundnuts scheme? If the whole Food Estimates are put down, that will cover food imported from all places.
Mr James Reid: May I ask the right hon. Gentleman questions on two points, which I am sure are not fundamental to this scheme? In regard to the final approval, is it really necessary, where there is a surgeon in the National Health Service who has performed the amputation and has approved the type of limb, for the Ministry of Pensions to be brought in for final approval? Could not the National Health...
Mr James Reid: I am a little surprised that the hon. Gentleman has sought to disagree with this Amendment, and I am still more surprised that he has not told us in greater detail why he takes that view. I will try to put the points which occur to me, and no doubt the Lord Advocate will deal with them. The hon. Gentleman referred to the definition of a holding. It might be as well that I should deal with...
Mr James Reid: The hon. Gentleman said they were undesirable, but he did not tell us why, although I know that anything which is unnecessary is undesirable. They can only be undesirable because they throw some other part of the law into doubt. I think I can leave out the Crofters' Acts, which may raise certain other points, because I am not so familiar with them and they applied only td a part of Scotland....
Mr James Reid: In order to remain a landholder one has to reside within two miles of the holding and a case will, therefore, arise where someone goes more than two miles away and claims to be an ordinary tenant. That is another problem.
Mr James Reid: If all we say is that this part of this Act shall not apply, that does not prevent the remaining parts of the other Acts from applying, surely?
Mr James Reid: Is the Lord Advocate prepared to admit that Part I of this Bil will necessarily apply to all statutory small tenants, contrary to the intentions of the Government?
Mr James Reid: asked the Minister of Food what steps are taken by his Department to make sure that all retailers regularly deliver to local Food Offices bread-rationing coupons collected by them; and what is the minimum percentage of such deliveries which is always counted in his Department.
Mr James Reid: Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that there are numerous bakers who still have sacks of B.Us. dating right back to 1946, and that they have never been asked to deliver them? Has the right hon. Gentleman taken any steps to see that his instructions are carried out?
