After the second reading of the Bill had been passed without a division, Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Coordination of Defence, emphasized that the introduction of the Bill did not indicate any near approach to an emergency.
He hoped, he said, that events justified the Government in thinking that it was not so probable as some might have thought in the past.
The Government, he continued, had proceeded on the plan that "we do not want stocks to withstand a siege, but to carry us over a period of trade disturbance, interruption in shipping and the possible destruction of stocks ports."
He thought that adequate purchases had been made for the present situation and emphasized that the storage policy did not exclude the necessity of considering a policy for develop-
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