So much for the past. Looking to the near future, in this transitional period I believe that this policy of price stabilisation will be even more important than it has been during the war. In the uncertain conditions which are inevitable during the period of switch-over from war to peace economy, when there will be big shifts of employment from one industry to another, I have decided that we must hold to this policy even more firmly than was contemplated by my predecessor. He announced in his Budget Speech of 1944, and repeated in his Budget Speech last April, that the ceiling of 30 per cent. above pre-war, which had previously been maintained, was to be raised to 35 per cent. above pre-war, and he indicated that he expected a rise towards this higher figure to take place during the present year. This has already happened. During the summer the cost-of-living index rose at one time to 33½per cent. above the pre-war level. It has since fallen, and now stands at about 31 per cent. My intention is that for the next year at least, and until further notice, we should seek to hold the index where it is now, and that we should not allow it to vary from the present level by more than an insignificant amount. Whatever may have been thought right a year ago under the Coalition Government, in this reconversion period we should, in my view, keep a firmer grip than even before on the cost of living.

I should like to give the Committee a few actual examples of the effect of this policy on particular prices. Bread, now costing 9d. for a 4lb. loaf, would, without subsidy, cost 1s. 1d. Potatoes, now costing 8¼d. for 7lb., would, without subsidy, cost 11d. Eggs, now 2s. dozen [ Laughter] would, without subsidy, cost 3s. 6d. Home-killed meat, without subsidy, would rise, on the average, by 4d. a lb. These are illustrations of the way in which prices are being held down

by this policy below the prices which otherwise would prevail, with widely distributed social advantage. But having said this, I must emphasise that no-one should under-estimate the cost which this policy will throw upon the national finances. Last year, the cost-of-living subsidies were costing the Exchequer about £200,000,000 a year. This figure has already risen by a formidable amount. It was already running at the rate of £250,000,000 a year before Lend-Lease was terminated.