§ Mr. PETOasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service if he will state the duties, salaries, and total number of agricultural commissioners appointed under his Department and how many national service agricultural substitutes they have available to place on the land and how many they have placed, apart from soldiers, who have been placed by direct negotiation between the War Office and the Board of Agriculture?
§ Mr. S. WALSHParticulars of the numbers of agricultural commissioners and sub-commissioners and their duties and salaries were given in the answer to the hon. Member for Newington West on the 2nd instant, to which answer I would refer my hon Friend. The number of agricultural volunteers available cannot at present be given, as the placing of these men by the agricultural commissioners is supplementary to the work of the Employment Exchanges. The scrutiny and classification of enrolments for agricultural purposes is, however, proceeding, whilst the military labour to which my hon. Friend refers is still on the land. Up to the 13th April, in addition to the volunteers interviewed and classified by the Exchanges, 489 skilled agriculturists in England, and over 700 in Scotland, had been offered to the National Service Department by corporations and others. To that date there had been placed 124 men in England and over 200 in Scotland.