§ 54. Mrs. Tateasked the Minister of Health what number of children it is estimated will be evacuated to the villages of Peasedown and Mells, in Somerset, in the event of war?
§ Mr. ElliotIt has been left to the local authority to distribute between the different parts of their area the number of evacuated persons to be transferred to the area as a whole. The numbers of evacuated persons transferable under the present railway arrangements to the rural districts of Bathavon and Frome are approximately 4,000 and 1,800 respectively. Roughly half the total number in each case will consist of school children, the remainder being children below school age with their mothers or other adults responsible for looking after them.
§ Mrs. TateIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that every summer there is an acute shortage of water in the villages of Peasedown and Mells, that I am informed that no fewer than 200 children are proposed to be evacuated to Mells, and before he allows a single child to be evacuated to these villages, will he make sure that there is an adequate supply of water, or is he just going to trust to the Germans to bring it with them?
§ Mr. ElliotIt would be very rash in those circumstances for the local authority to undertake a large number of cases of billeting in these two villages, and I 1507 take it that the local authorities will themselves be better aware of the position than anyone else.
§ Mrs. TateWill some arrangement with regard to the appalling shortage of water in those villages be made before children are evacuated there?
§ Mr. ElliotThe local authority, naturally, will take into account an area where there is a shortage of water in the billeting of children.