§ MR. E. STRACHEY (Somerset, S.)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Chelsea whether the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will undertake that 312 their allotment land at Chard, Somerset, lately offered by them for sale but withdrawn at the auction, shall not be sold to a private individual, but be offered to the local authority for the purposes of the Allotments Acts, 1887 and 1889; and whether, failing this offer being accepted, will the Ecclesiastical Commissioners retain the allotment land at Chard in their own hands, so that the allotment holders shall run no risk of their being deprived of the land?
§ MR. C. A. WHITMORE (Chelsea)The allotment land at Chard was withdrawn from the recent auction by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in order that the allotment holders should run no risk of being deprived of their land. The Commissioners are prepared to, treat with the local authority for a sale to them of the allotment land; and in the event of any failure to come to terms, the Commissioners are prepared to give an assurance that the land shall not be sold without giving the local authority the refusal.