§ Colonel DAYasked the President of the Board of Trade why the contract amounting to £250,000 for building was given to the Dyer Company, Ohio, in respect of the new beet-sugar factory at Peterborough?
Mr. GUINNESSI have been asked to reply. I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the answer given yesterday to similar questions put to me by the hon. Members for East Ham (Mr. Barnes), Wavertree (Mr. Tinne), and Gravesend (Mr. Albery).
§ Colonel DAYasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the importance of the beet-sugar industry, any steps are being taken to afford educational training in order to attract the right type of technical officers?
Mr. GUINNESSI have been asked to reply. The question of the training of British technical personnel for the beet-sugar factories being built in this country has received the special attention of the British Sugar Beet Society, which has adopted the Report of a Committee consisting of Professor Arthur Ling, M.Sc., F.I.C., of Birmingham University, Dr. Tr. A. Wijnberg, former Principal of the School of the Sugar Industry of Holland, Mr. T. H. P. Heriot, F.I.C., Lecturer on Sugar Manufacture at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, and Mr. Alfred Wood, Secretary to the Society. The Report proposes that between two technical courses at a university or similar institution there shall be a voluntary practical course at one of the beet-sugar factories. The society is now in consultation with the factory companies with a view to putting the scheme into operation. In the meantime, I understand that the factory companies have upon their staff a nucleus of British certified chemists who are being given every reasonable advantage of gaining experience to equip them for the higher posts.