§ 39. Mr. CECIL HARMSWORTHasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether in some agricultural districts ploughmen are still being taken for military service; and whether, if in such districts the supply of ploughmen is regarded as being more than equal to local needs, the military authorities will take immediate steps to release them for work in other districts where they are urgently required?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThere are undoubted excesses in certain parts of the country from which agricultural labourers recruited badly in the voluntary days and in which they have been over-protected by tribunals. As demands for ploughmen come in from the war agricultural committees and also on the initiative of local military authorities ploughmen serving as soldiers are sent to meet acute needs.