§ MR. J. M. ROBERTSON (Northumberland, Tyneside)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether the staff of the 7th Division (Carlisle) of the Ordnance Survey is likely to be reduced in the near future; and whether, in the event of such a reduction being found necessary, the men selected for discharge will be drawn from those with less than fifteen years' service.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) The 7th Division is at present employed in Ireland on the survey of county Lough, and on the completion of this work in two years time the Division will resume revision work in England. This will involve the removal of all the surveyors from the Division, but I hope that it will be possible to continue the services of these men in other capacities or in other Divisions. In the selection of men for discharge, the cases of men with more than fifteen years' service will be most carefully and sympathetically considered, but there is a certain amount of work on the survey which must be always done by youths.