§ 93. Lieut.-Colonel NALLasked the Under-Secretary to the Scottish Board of Health whether any independent inquiry has been made by competent accountants into the balance sheets of farmers' co-operative societies in Scotland in order to ascertain the difference in the price for produce paid to farmers by the societies and by proprietary companies; and whether the original capital of the societies has so depreciated in value that the present financial position of many of them is precarious?
§ Captain ELLIOTAs regards the first part of the question, my Noble Friend is informed that the accounts of all farmers' co-operative societies in Scotland are annually audited by an official auditor. So far as he is aware, no special inquiry of the kind indicated has been made. As regards the second part of the question, he has no reason to believe that the societies referred to are in a precarious financial position.