asked the Minister of Food what amount of brislings were purchased by his Department from Denmark during the past 12 months; what proportion of these has been made available to the public; and what loss has been incurred by his Department on account of the Danish refusal to repurchase this surplus.

Approximately 1,170 tons of canned brisling were imported from Denmark during 1950, all of which has been made available to distributors. I cannot yet say what will be the ultimate financial outcome of this transaction.

asked the Minister of Food how many tins of sprats and brisling were sold back to the countries from which they were originally bought; and what was the total cost of the shipping, handling and storage of those returned.

Approximately 9,004,000 tins of brisling were sold back to the countries of origin. The total cost of shipping, handling and storage was approximately £11,000 all of which was recovered from the buyers in the price charged to them. There was no loss to the taxpayer on this transaction.