HC Deb 09 October 1940 vol 365 cc359-60
22. Sir Percy Harris (for Mr. Mander)

asked the Secretary of State for War what steps have been taken to carry out the recommendations contained in the Twelfth Report from the Select Committee on National Expenditure with regard to the feeding of the Army, the greater use of canned food to supplement the existing normal ration, and the appointment of a departmental committee of inquiry, and the further recommendation that a new Army Agricultural Committee similar to that appointed in January, 1918, should be set up?

Mr. Law

As regards the feeding of the Army, an experiment will be made of providing the ration for certain smaller static units largely by tinned food. My right hon. Friend does not think that a committee of inquiry is necessary. But he has decided, with the concurrence of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to invite two business men of experience to consult with the management of Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes and advise whether and by what means the services which the Institutes provide for the troops can be extended and improved. Mr. A. S. Macharg, of McClelland, Ker and Company, and Mr. L. C. Royle, Managing Director of Meadow Dairy Company, Limited, have kindly consented to undertake this work. As regards the appointment of an Army Agricultural Committee, the circumstances are not the same as they were in 1918 when tracts of land were available for cultivation by the Army, not only in this country but in France, Mesopotamia and elsewhere, and they do not at present, in my right hon. Friend's view, justify setting up an organisation on the scale then desirable. But he proposes to appoint a specially qualified person to the staff of the War Office to go further into the problem and to prepare and administer plans for the cultivation of lands in War Department occupation to the fullest extent practicable.

Mr. Glenvil Hall

Is the Minister aware that the trouble is still the bad cooking, and can nothing be done to remedy it?

Mr. Law

We must have some regard to the shortage of trained cooks, but we are making great strides in the matter. The position is very much better than it was some time ago.

Mr. Bellenger

Are the two gentlemen to whom he has just referred unconnected with N.A.A.F.I. or the War Office by way of contracts?

Mr. Law

That is so.