HC Deb 22 October 1942 vol 383 cc2095-6
51. Lieut.-Colonel Heneage

asked the Minister of Agriculture for what reason it is still necessary to maintain a proviso that the Women's Land Army shall not be recruited from women already employed on the land for more than six months; and is he aware that it is discouraging farmers' and agricultural labourers' daughters from taking up agricultural pursuits?

Mr. Hudson

The object of the Women's Land Army is to provide an additional force of regular labour for the land. It is not desirable, in my view, that the State should incur the unnecessary cost of organising for agricultural work women who are already employed in agriculture and who will not be taken from it.

Lieut.-Colonel Heneage

Is my right hon. Friend aware that as a result of these restrictions women cannot go into the Land Army and continue to work on the land because they are taken away for other jobs?

Mr. Hudson

Women who are already employed in agriculture will not be taken away from the land.

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