§ 108. Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Minister of Agriculture whether the Government's conditional offer of £150,000 to the Royal Veterinary College is confined to rebuilding on the present Camden Hill site or would be equally available for acquiring a country site with a farm attached where training and research could be carried on in an environment more suitable than the present site in London?
§ Dr. ADDISONThe committee appointed by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Guinness) when Minister of Agriculture recommended unanimously that the college should be rebuilt on the present site, and that recommendation, of which the grounds are stated in the committee's report, was accepted both by the Government and by the Governors of the college. The Government contribution of £150,000 was therefore offered with a view to reconstruction on the present site.
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREDoes the right hon. Gentleman regard himself as absolutely bound by the recommendations of this committee if a much cheaper site were available in the country, which would require much less expenditure, and would be more suitable for the purposes of the college?
§ Dr. ADDISONI do not wish to say that I am absolutely hound, but I understand that this report, after very considerable inquiry, was quite unanimous on the point.
§ Lieut.-Colonel FREMANTLEIs it not the case that, since that report, new 597 arterial roads and tube extensions have been made, which involve a new consideration in connection with this proposal?
§ Dr. ADDISONI do not think that the report was based on the question of transport. Other matters led to these recommendations.
§ Dr. ADDISONThey are there now in large numbers.
§ Mr. PRICEWill the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that veterinary research conducted in the middle of London is not exactly calculated to achieve its end?
§ Dr. ADDISONOf course, veterinary research is being carried on in a very large number of places, many of them outside London.