§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S.E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether, in consequence of the almost total loss of every kind of crop, over an area of 70 square miles in Essex on Thursday last, the Government will consider the possibility of sending a commissioner to report as to the necessity of some exceptional measure of relief?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.I requested my hon. Friend yesterterday to put this Question to the Minister of Agriculture, but my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture has not vet returned from his official duties elsewhere, and I have not had an opportunity of consulting him on the matter. In the meanwhile I can only say that Her Majesty's Government do feel most deeply the gravity of the loss which has fallen upon a large part—a considerable part—of the county of Essex; and although I should not be justified, I think, in holding out any hopes of Government assistance—at all events, without very much fuller consideration than I have yet been able to give to the question 740 —I can assure my hon. Friend that the subject of his Question shall receive the most sympathetic consideration of myself and my colleagues. ["Hear, hear!]
§ MR. KEARLEY (Devonport)Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a part of the county of South Bucks has been just as severely visited? ["Hear, hear!" "Oh!" and laughter.]
§ *MR SPEAKEROrder, order! That is an entirely different question.