Short Commons
What Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd has had to say about 'the fuel position and .what Major Lloyd George has had to say about the food position fully justify the passage in the King's Speech about making a full disclosure of the facts. There is not neces- sarily any criticism of the Labour Government in that ; certainly no suggestion of any deliberate concealment of facts ; but the situation may well have changed, and not for the better, since Labour Ministers last made full statements to the House on these subjects. At any rate, it is now revealed in its full seriousness. Unless the winter is abnormally mild, householders will go rather cold as well as rather hungry.. That is no light matter, for people. who are rather hungry need more warmth than usual, not less. Coal is again to be imported from America—at the expense of the dollar-exchange. Italian labour, which might substantially increase, coal-output, is not available, except on the most limited scale, because British miners will not agree to it. Once more a man's foes are they of his own household. Once more the workers in a single industry can penalise the whole nation. As for the food-cuts, since cuts are essential, they have on the whole fallen in the right quarters. Tinned meats have made a welcome supplement to the meagre meat-ration—even that, we are warned, may not be maintained at the Is. 5d. figure—but they are relatively expensive and benefited the well-to-do rather than the average wage-earner. And if the average wage-earner can subsist on the Is. 5d., other classes, who will be able still to supplement the ration in various ways, have certainly no ground for complaint, even about the loss of Christmas food-bonuses.
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