HC Deb 06 August 1914 vol 65 cc2064-5
Sir EDWIN CORNWALL

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether in view of the public necessity that business should not be unnecessarily interfered with in London and other large centres of population he will take steps that, in requisitioning horses that heavy horses used for carting coal, foodstuffs and other necessaries, will as much as possible be exempted?

Mr. TENNANT

The remounts regulations prescribe that horses of public bodies and of the food distributing trade are to be spared if possible. The number of heavy draught horses required is an infinitesimal proportion of those available in the country, and it is not anticipated that the withdrawal of those required for military purposes will have any serious effect. I would add, however, that the Army has to be mobilised, and I would make an appeal to the owners of horses to co-operate as much as possible with the authorities responsible for the Remount Service.

Mr. CHARLES BATHURST

I wish to ask the Prime Minister whether the Government will arrange that farm horses now being employed in harvest operations shall be exempt until this harvest is over?—[HON. MEMBERS: They are!]

The PRIME MINISTER

That was answered yesterday.

Mr. CHARLES BATHURST

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a large number of these horses, particularly in the Eastern Counties, are now being impressed to the detriment of the harvest?

Mr. PRETYMAN

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that it is not a question of want of patriotism in the agricultural districts, and will he consider it from the purely national point of view? I have a statement here from a large farmer and wheat grower in Norfolk, the whole of whose horses have been taken. That is not the doing of the War Office. Assurances have been given, but there has been local over zeal. [Interruptions.] Surely we must press this. Will the right hon. Gentleman give instructions and state them publicly, so that any local action which is not in the national interest may be stopped?

The PRIME MINISTER

I no longer represent the War Office, but I stated that yesterday in the clearest and explicit terms.