§ 63. Mr. STEPHENasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies in connection with the grant of £1,000,000 to the Empire Marketing Board, what sum has been allocated to protect the interests of home producers in Scotland, and the direction in which this sum is being spent?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Ormsby-Gore)The following grants have been made or promised by the Empire Marketing Board for various services affecting Scottish administration:
In addition to the foregoing grants for the following purposes have been provisionally sanctioned:
- (i) A sum not exceeding £800 to the Scottish National Milk and Health Association for a survey of the production and utilisation of milk and milk residues.
- (ii) A sum not exceeding £2,850 to the same Association for feeding experiments with children.
1854 - (iii) Salary and allowance for a period of four months to a Professor of the West of Scotland Agricultural College seconded for the purpose of conducting a survey of dairy research within the Empire.
- (iv) A sum of £10,000 to the Rowett Institute for research into problems of animal nutrition throughout the Empire.
- (v) A sum of £6,000 to the Rowett Institute for a collateral inquiry into human nutrition covering Kenya Colony.
It will be appreciated that much of this expenditure, although incurred in Scotland, is intended to be of benefit to Empire Trade as a whole, and that on the other hand a very considerable proportion of the remaining expenditure of the Board, whether on advertising or on research, is directly beneficial to the home producers in this country either exclusively or in common with the producers in overseas parts of the Empire.
- (i) Research in poultry nutrition at the Rowett Institute.
- (ii) Animal breeding research at Edinburgh University.
- (iii) The establishment of a quarantine station in connection with the export of pedigree stock in Glasgow on the same lines at the station comtemplated for London.
§ Mr. HARRISHas anything been done to advertise Scotch mutton and Scotch oats in the same way as New Zealand butter and Australian meat?
§ Mr. RILEYDo not the items read out relate to research and not to marketing at all, and is not the granting of sums for that purpose rather a misappropriation of money available for marketing?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREIt is clearly laid down by the Economic Committee that the main effort is to be on research, and it is the scientific development of the resources of the Empire and better marketing to which we are devoting the greater part of our energies.
§ Lieut.-Colonel ACLAND-TROYTEif Scotch mutton is to be advertised, I hope Exmoor mutton will be advertised too.