§ 28. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Minister of Labour why his present arrangements for suspension of call-up of agricultural workers apply only to men wholly engaged in food production on agricultural holdings and employment in those occupations commonly followed by farm workers and do not apply to agricultural scientific experimentalists or research workers.
§ The Minister of Labour (Sir Walter Monckton)The arrangements for the suspension of the call-up of some agricultural farm workers are not appropriate to agricultural scientists. The arrangements for deferring the call-up of agricultural scientists and research workers who wish to pursue post-graduate studies, and of a limited number of such men employed on certain projects important to food production, were explained to the hon. Member in reply to his Question on 14th April.
§ Mr. Hector HughesI am very much obliged to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for the detailed reply which he sent me, but does he not agree that such agricultural scientists stand in a very special class for two reasons, because field experiments necessarily take a long time and because successful experiments result in the production of far more food than any single agricultural labourer could produce?
§ Sir W. MoncktonI understand completely the importance of paying attention to the potentialities of those scientists and researchers, but it is not appropriate that they should be dealt with in the same way as agricultural workers. They are dealt with differently, just as researchers into coal efficiency and economy are dealt with differently from the actual coal producers, the miners.