§ 73. Mr. SNOWDENasked the President of the Local Government Board if he will have a special inquiry made into the action of the Gower Rural Tribunal in respect of the case of H. V. Watters, an applicant for exemption from the Military Service Tribunal on the ground of being employed upon essential national work, and also on the ground of a conscientious objection, seeing that the chairman of the tribunal, a local land agent, had a grudge against the family of Watters, and had threatened that he would have his revenge, and another member of the tribunal had, nine days before the hearing of the case, been compelled to sign a withdrawal of certain charges which he had made against Watters, and also in view of the fact that Watters is the only agricultural mechanic and shoeing-smith in the district, doing the work for over fifty farmers who have petitioned the local tribunal, the Appeal Tribunal, the Minister of Agriculture, and the War Minister on his behalf; and will he also inquire into the conduct of Colonel Pearson, who at the hearing told Watters that he was a traitor and only fit to be on the point of a German bayonet or in a lunatic asylum?
§ Mr. HAYES FISHERMy right hon. Friend is having inquiries made.