§ Sir JOHN LONSDALEI beg to ask the Prime Minister a question, of which I have given him private notice: If the Government have sanctioned a Grant from the Development Fund to the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society; and, if so, will he state the amount of the Grant, the conditions upon which it will be made, and the steps to be taken to promote harmonious relations between the society and the Irish Department of Agriculture?
§ The PRIME MINISTERYes, Sir. The Commissioners have recommended, and the Treasury have sanctioned, an advance by way of Grant of £2,000 to the society in question upon certain terms and conditions set out in a Treasury letter, which will be laid upon the Table in a day or two. These conditions provide, amongst other things, that the society, so long as it receives aid from the Development Fund, shall add to and retain on its governing body eleven persons nominated by the Development Commissioners, and that these members shall be invited to attend the meetings of the society's governing body and be treated in all respects as members of it; that no co-operative society which engages in work other than that of a purely agricultural nature, such as the purchase and sale of groceries, shall be admitted to affiliation with the society, 219 and that any existing societies—as for instance, the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society—which are continuing to engage in such business on the 1st January, next, shall cease to be affiliated. With regard to the first condition, it is proposed as an interim measure, to nominate two members of the Commission and one of the assistant secretaries, who may nominate other three gentlemen representatives as far as possible of the various Irish interests concerned in the administration of the Grant. On the appointment of the eleven nominated members on the committee, the members of the Development Commission will cease to serve. The society in question has given an assurance that it will take no part whatever in controversies involving political partisanship, whether through its agents, spokesmen, or printed publications.