Food Prices Pegged
Two announcements made in the House of Commons on Wednesday provide considerable reassurance regarding both the volume of foodstuffs to reach these shores and the prices at which they will be sold retail. One is the decision to put all shipbuilding, of both naval and merchant-vessels, under the Admiralty, and thus temporarily nationalise the whole industry. The purpose is to avoid competition be- tween the two classes of building and to secure to the Government an increased fleet of merchant-shipping, which can be more effectively controlled and will be much cheaper to operate, than neutral shipping on charter. Sir James Lithgow will control the new enterprise, which should, on its cargo-vessel side, keep the supply of imports, particularly imported foodstuffs, adequate. At the same time retail prices of essential commodities will be, in fact are already being, kept stable by Government action. Since the Govern- ment now purchases and distributes the whole supply of such commodities it can fix retail prices as it chooses, but to hold them where they are costs it at present L1,000,000 a week, in view of rising freight, insurance and other charges. As a result of its action there was no rise in the food-price index during December, and there will prove to have been little or none during January. The cost is con- siderable, but to avoid rising prices, reflected immediately in prompt demands for rises in wages, which in their turn would send up prices further, is worth all the million a week.
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