§ 42. Mr. PETOasked the Minister of Munitions whether the entire shipments of tractors and ploughs are held up to the order of his Department, including machines ordered by particular farmers; whether he is aware that in cases where all arrangements have been made in anticipation of delivery by farmers to put these machines into immediate operation on large farms of 1,000 acres and upwards, and spring cultivation and seeding operations have been laid out in anticipation of having the machines to use, this action will so hinder the work as to diminish the area of arable land that can be cultivated and sown this spring; will he say who is entrusted with the task of deciding that these machines can be more usefully employed elsewhere than on the farms for which they were ordered; and whether he is satisfied that his Department are more capable of carrying on farming operations than the farmers who are responsible for the cultivation of these large farms?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY Of MUNITIONS (Major Sir Worthington Evans)No tractors are being held up. Importers and manufacturers are delivering as fast as the machines are ready. Tractors and ploughs are only diverted by the Ministry of Munitions on request by the Boards of Agriculture for England or Scotland or the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. The decision as to where machines so diverted can be most usefully employed rests with those Departments.
§ Mr. PETOWill the hon. Gentleman take some steps to see that that answer 1706 is conveyed to those importers, so that they do not give answers to inquiries for machines to the effect contained in the question, that the whole of the consignments axe to the order of the Ministry of Munitions?
§ Sir W. EVANSThe facts are as I have stated in my reply.