§ 29. Mr. Rileyasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works and Planning whether he will consider the advisability of commandeering the large number of metal automatic machines which are now not used but which could be made available as scrap for war purposes?
§ Mr. HicksA large number of these machines have already been presented by the owners and collected for scrap and a further quantity of obsolete type will be recovered later.
§ Mr. RileyIn view of the fact that the Government exercise power to commandeer factory space which is being used, why do they not commandeer all these machines which are not being used?
§ Mr. HicksThe answer which I formerly gave to a Question on this subject is that the owners have presented us with at least 5,000 of these machines. These have been collected. As the machines now become obsolete, we are collecting them each week, and will continue to do so.