51. Mr. De la Bèreasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will consider some method whereby ex-Service men who have been overseas and have been discharged on account of ill-health, who are desirous of earning a livelihood by way of poultry keeping, shall have some allocation to enable them to obtain feeding-stuffs for poultry keeping, in view of the large number of cases where they have been refused any allocation through the war agricultural executive committees?
Mr. HudsonThe very small balance of feeding-stuffs left for pigs and poultry after provision is made for priority livestock, namely, dairy cows, calves and essential working horses, is, I am afraid, inadequate to provide for exceptional treatment for ex-Service men of either the present war or that of 1914–18.
Mr. De la BèreDoes not my right hon. Friend appreciate that ex-Service men who return from these arduous campaigns are entitled to some special priority? Why does he not ask the war agricultural executive committees to endeavour to give some small amount of feeding-stuffs at any rate to these men, in view of all they have done for the country? I do not think the matter should be dismissed in this way.
Mr. HudsonI think that nothing would be more disastrous to the future of those who have done so much for their country as to encourage them to go in for a calling of which the future is so uncertain for several years to come as poultry keeping, and in the interests of the ex-Service men themselves I deprecate their going into poultry keeping at the present time.
Mr. De la BèreDoes the right hon. Gentleman not appreciate that many of these men were poultry keepers before being called up for Service, as in the case to which I have drawn his attention, and that both he and the agricultural committees fail to recognise the priority right of ex-Service men? I am not satisfied with the position, and I do not like it.