HC Deb 31 July 1912 vol 41 c2035
41. Captain FABER

asked the President of the Board of Trade the populations of England, Germany, and France, and the number and proportion of each, respectively, engaged in agriculture and in industries other than agriculture?

Mr. BUXTON

The total number of occupied persons in the United Kingdom in 1901—the latest year for which figures are available—was 18,300,000, and of these 2,312,000, or 12.6 per cent., were engaged in agriculture; in Germany in 1907 the occupied population numbered 28,000,000, of whom 9,863,000, or 35.2 per cent., were engaged in agriculture. The corresponding figures for France in 1906 were 20,700,000, 8,766,000, and 42.3 per cent.

Captain FABER

Are we to understand that in these protected countries the percentage of those engaged in agriculture is higher or lower than in England?

Mr. BUXTON

The hon. Member can draw his own inferences from the figures I have given him.

Captain FABER

I was not asking for inferences, I was asking for facts.