§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether the Government propose to acquire land and employ the 15,000 unemployed military prisoners in this country in growing food for the people; and, if not, will he state what reason there is for keeping 15,000 useless men when the 1035W German Government have employed British prisoners of war in growing food during the last two years?
§ Mr. ACLANDFor the reasons given in a recent Debate in another place, and owing to the difficulty of acquiring land for reclamation purposes on reasonable terms without extremely controversial legislation, it has not hitherto been found possible to employ prisoners as the Noble Lord suggests; but as I stated to the Noble Lord the Member for South Nottingham on 2nd November, a small Committee appointed by the War Office is now actively at work upon the consideration of all proposals for the employment of prisoners of war. I think it will be found better to employ them if possible on maintaining the cultivation of existing arable land rather than on land which it is not easy to make quickly productive.