§ MR. G. A. HARDY (Suffolk, Stowmarket)To ask the secretary of State for War whether he is aware that nuisance is caused throughout an extensive and thickly populated district of London by the volumes of smoke poured out of the chimneys of Woolwich Arsenal notwithstanding protests of the Woolwich Borough Council and die London County Council; that whilst at other works throughout the county, manufacturers have been compelled to adopt preventive measures, no effective measures have been adopted at the Royal Arsenal; that the recent Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration urged the importance of strictly enforcing the law against smoke nuisance, but that local authorities are seriously hampered in suppressing smoke nuisance owing to the exemption of Government works from statutory regulation; and whether he will give instructions for the adoption at Woolwich Arsenal of effective means for permanently minimising the nuisance from smoke.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) The matter is one which has received and is receiving constant and careful attention, and mechanical and other means for prevention are being tried. Improvement has been made of late and efforts will be continued to effect still further improvement.