secondly, we ourselves were brought very near to disaster by the submarine 1088 Crisis of February, 1917; thirdly, during the War we had to get the greater part of our food supplies from North America, because we had not got the shipping tonnage to go all the way to Australia and New Zealand to fetch supplies, even when we were able to buy the supplies out there; and, fourthly, in 1918 we reached a very serious animal foodstuffs crisis, because we were not able to get foodstuffs in this country to feed our own livestock.

It is clear that the Government knew long before the Crisis of February, 1946, that the world was likely to be short of bread grains.

If the figures I have given prove to be correct, we shall face a Crisis in February of next year.

There was a Crisis in February, but I am certain that nobody would blame the companies or the municipalities for that, because we all know that the advice they gave four years ago was over-ruled.

I told the right hon. Gentleman at the time of the February Crisis - using almost exactly the same words as the Prime Minister, but I make no apology for that - that, thanks to the Government's mismanagement, the sterling rate had settled lower than it should have done.