§ MR. H. H. MARKS (Kent, Thanet)I beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether His Majesty's Government is taking measures to give effect to the recommendations of the Departmental Committee on Fruit Culture; and whether any steps have yet been taken to carry out the suggestion of the Committee that a special sub-department of the Board of Agriculture should be established to deal with matters connected with the fruit industry.
SIR EDWARD STEACHEY (Somersetshire, S.)The recommendations of the Committee on Fruit Culture are receiving attention, and we are in communication with other Government Departments with regard to such of them as do not fall exclusively within our own jurisdiction. We are in sympathy with the suggestion that the Staff of the Department should be somewhat enlarged so as to enable it to do more for the fruit industry, but some increase of expenditure would be entailed, and at present no definite statement on the subject can be made.