§ 80. Captain C. BATHURSTasked the Under-Secretary of State for War, whether the War Office are building kilns at £50 a-piece in order to burn to ashes the many thousands of tons of stable manure produced at the remount depot at Avon-mouth; whether he is aware that this valuable fertiliser is greatly in demand by Gloucestershire farmers outside the immediate neighbourhood of Avonmouth, but that, owing to the impossibility of obtaining railway trucks, a large number of which are kept empty and unused out-side certain railway stations in case of emergency, it cannot be conveyed to them; and whether, in order to avoid its contemplated destruction and satisfy the farmers' growing needs, the War Office will place temporarily at the disposal of the Agricultural War Committee of the Gloucestershire County Council for this purpose either a few of the trucks now standing idle on railways in the West of England or some of the motor transport 1769 lorries similarly standing idle in the neighbourhood of the above remount depot?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the WAR OFFICE (Mr. Forster)The cinerators were erected by the commandant as he was unable to get rid of the enormous accumulation of manure from last winter in any other way. As my hon. and gallant Friend suggests, the difficulty has been the impossibility of obtaining railway trucks for its removal from the depot to places where it could be made available for the farmers' use. I am informed that no railway trucks suitable for the purpose are being held up by the War Office, but the local military authorities are now considering the possibility of providing some motor lorries to take the manure into Gloucestershire, and I shall welcome my hon. and gallant Friend's co-operation.