§ 89. Sir WILLIAM COTTSasked the Under-Secretary to the Scottish Board of Health if he will state, with reference to a Circular letter issued by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, dated 8th December, 1922, explaining that the land drainage scheme would not be applicable to the Outer Hebrides, but other proposals for the alleviation of distress and unemployment were under consideration, what the Government intends doing in view of the fact that, generally speaking, nothing so far had been done for the alleviation of distress and unemployment in these islands?
§ Captain ELLIOT (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health, Scotland)I cannot accept the suggestion that nothing so far has been done for the alleviation of distress and unemployment in the Outer Hebrides since December last. Advances to the amount of over £5,000 have been made through the Board of Agriculture from the Vote for Relief of Unemployment towards the cost of special road works in Lewis and Harris, of which two were mentioned in my reply to the hon. Member's unstarred question on the 26th March. The Unemployment Grants Committee have recently issued to local authorities generally two Circulars relating to works for the relief of unemployment in the winter of 1923–4, of which I am sending copies to the hon. Member.