§ 7. Mr. Dyeasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in how many cases the owner of a large farm has been able to buy up a small farm in the neighbourhood and dispossess the tenant in similar circumstances to the Caythorpe Farm in Lincolnshire.
Mr. AmoryMy records of consents given and refused to the operation of notices to quit do not show whether or not the landlords had larger farms than the tenants, or the circumstances in which they acquired their land.
§ Mr. DyeIs not this a case of the old type, of Ahab trying to acquire Naboth's vineyard? Is it a good policy to allow the big ones to buy up the smaller ones, particularly in the case mentioned here, where the tenant came back during the war, took on the farm in very bad condition and worked it up to the satisfaction of all the Minister's officers in the district?
Mr. AmoryThe other case to which the hon. Member referred was not under my supervision. I am not sure whether it is an exact analogy, therefore. I would remind the hon. Member that one of the grounds for approving notices to quit is inefficient farming. As he knows, this, matter has gone before the tribunal, and it would not be proper for me to comment upon the decision of the tribunal.
Mr. T. WilliamsWill the Minister be good enough to look at the case of this farm, to see whether it throws up some weak spots in the 1947 Act?
Mr. AmoryI have looked at this case very carefully. It has gone fully through all the proper procedure. While it is true that different views will inevitably be held about the final decisions in these cases—as the right hon. Gentleman will agree—this case has been most fully and properly considered.
§ Captain DuncanIs it not remarkable that the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. T. Williams) thinks that he might have spotted a weakness in the 1947 Act?
Mr. WilliamsI invited the Minister to see whether there was a weak spot in the Act, and the right hon. Gentleman has not found one.