§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Minister of Labour why hop pickers from Portsmouth and Southampton, going to the hop gardens of Hampshire and Surrey, are to be refused cheap tickets; and if this privilege is to be accorded to hop pickers from London going to Kent?
§ Sir E. GEDDESI have been asked to answer this question. The whole question of granting reduced fares to seasonal workers has been considered, and I can find no justification for making any reduction in the ordinary fares. As stated in the reply to my Noble Friend on the 1st July, the conditions in the case of hop pickers going from London into Kent are quite exceptional.