§ Captain ORMSBY-GOREasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether Mr. Herod-Hempsall is being allowed to import Dutch bees into this country as a private trader; whether similar facilities will be given to other bee experts anxious to import bees from Holland and America, or whether Mr. Herod-Hempsall has been given a monopoly; and whether Mr. Herod-Hempsall is the chief adviser to the Board of Agriculture in apiary?
Sir A. BOSCAWENMr. Herod-Hempsall is the Board's chief technical export in beekeeping. In this connection he was responsible for carrying out the Board's 1817W scheme for restocking apiaries in this country with stocks of Dutch bees and Italian queens, and his work on behalf of the Board involved a visit to Holland to superintend the dispatch of the bee stocks, and he was also responsible for their distribution to the various county horticultural committees. There is no monopoly for the import of bees from Holland and America, and the Board have already given such encouragement as lies in their power to private traders to import bee stocks from abroad. Mr. Herod-Hempsall has acted throughout as the Board's representative, and not as a private trader.