§ 20. Mr. WATTasked the Secretary for Scotland whether the Board of Agriculture for Scotland has had recent applications for land in the Island of Arran for the purpose of growing food for the people from men who have sons fighting on the various fronts, some of them as many as three or four sons so fighting; if so, has any effort been made by the Scottish Board to get these men land; have the compulsory powers of the Board been in any way exercised; and, if not, will he give the reason of this, in view of the facts that land formerly broken up exists there in a derelict condition, that the golf course is now quite unused, and that these facts were inquired into by a representative of the Board who visited the locality but without any result?
§ The SECRETARY for SCOTLAND (Mr. Munro)The Board of Agriculture for Scotland have been in close co-operation with the district agricultural committee in Arran, and have found it possible to deal satisfactorily with almost all the applications that have reached them. As regards the golf course referred to, part of which the tenant of the farm on which the course is situated desired to plough, the Board, in agreement with the opinion of the committee, considered that the case was sufficiently met by a fuller grazing of the course, which has accordingly been ordered.
§ Mr. WATTAs the result of this cooperation of which the right hon. Gentleman speaks in his answer, has anyone in Arran been provided with a tract of land?
§ Mr. MUNROMy information is that, with one or two exceptions, all the applications have been granted.