§ Lieut.-Commander Tufnellasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware of the acute shortage of agricultural labour in many districts of the country; that it is, in some cases, impossible for farmers and landowners to comply with official requests to plough-up and sow additional land through this shortage; that the shortage is due, for the most part, to the fact that labour is enticed away by factories offering higher wages than are paid by agriculturists; and whether he has in mind any proposals to deal with a situation which is becoming daily more serious?
§ Sir R. Dorman-SmithI am aware that there is an acute shortage of experienced agricultural labour in many parts of the country, and that it has been seriously aggravated by the movement of agricultural workers to other employment offering higher wages. The demand for labour for war work in rural areas has increased rapidly since the outbreak of war, and administrative action has been and is being taken by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour to meet the situation as far as possible. The general situation in regard to the labour supply in agriculture is continuing to receive the close attention of the Government. As in other industries where labour is short, it will be necessary to introduce unskilled labour from other sources, and a number of measures have been devised to supplement the normal labour force.