§ Sir CLIFFORD CORYasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that one of the members of the Commission appointed to hold an inquiry with reference to the application made by the Devon and Cornwall fisheries committees for a Grant to enable them to advance money to fishermen on easy terms for the purpose of putting motors in their boats has adversely criticised such county Sea Fisheries Committee in the public Press; and, seeing that under such circumstances such member is not in a position to make an unbiassed report, whether he 279W will consider the advisability of substituting another person for his Commissioner?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANI believe that one of the four gentlemen by whom the inquiry is being conducted has at times been a critic of the work of the Sea Fisheries Committees, but if critics of the existing order of things are to be regarded as ineligible for membership of committees280W such as that in question, the work of those bodies would suffer considerably. The gentleman to whom I refer has taken an active and sympathetic interest in the welfare of the inshore fishermen, and I do not doubt that in conjunction with his three I colleagues he will consider the information which they obtain in a fair and reasonable spirit, and that their work will be of value to those on whose behalf it has been I undertaken.