§ 41. Mr. CHARLES DUNCANasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that one of the 421 appointed members of the Sussex District Wages Committee is an employer of agricultural labour and is therefore an interested party in deciding the wages and working conditions; and whether he will take steps to end this appointment and appoint some other person likely to be entirely impartial?
§ Sir R. WINFREYThe appointed members on the Sussex District Wages Committee are Colonel A. Sutherland Harris, High Sheriff of Sussex and Chairman of the Education Committee of the East Sussex County Council; Mr. W. P. G. Boxall, K.C., Recorder of Brighton; Mr. T. Pargeter, railway signalman and president of Newhaven Trades Council; Mr. C. C. Lacaita, J.P.; and the Hon. Lady Maxse. It does not appear to me that the personal interest of any of these persons in agricultural wages is sufficient to throw doubt on their impartiality.
§ Mr. C. DUNCANasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he will cause inquiry to be made as to whether some, if not many, of the appointed members of district wages committees are employers of agricultural labour, and therefore neither disinterested nor impartial persons, as is expected of those who come within the administration of these wages committees, as laid down in the regulations of the Corn Production Act; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter?
§ Sir R. WINFREYThe definition of agricultural employment in the Corn Production Act is wide, and it is probable that some of the appointed members employ men who come within it. Farmers dependent for their livelihood on the occupation of land have been excluded, but the difficulty of securing the services of persons familiar with rural conditions would be insuperable if the fact that they employed men who are subject to the provisions of the Act were held to debar them from exercising an impartial judgment. The reply to the last part of the question is therefore in the negative.