§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Minister of Labour whether cheap fares for hop pickers coming to Hampshire hop gardens have been refused for the coming season, whereas Kent hop farmers have been informed that the same conditions as last year will prevail; and, if so, what is the reason for this difference of treatment?
§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Minister of Transport whether he can see his way to allow hop pickers to proceed this year on their hop-picking journeys at cheap fares without any intervention on the 690W part of local labour exchanges, education committees, or other authorities, in the same manner that hop pickers were allowed to obtain cheap tickets before the War?
§ Mr. NEALI have been asked to reply to the first of these questions, and it is convenient to deal with that question in connection with the second. Cheap tickets for hop pickers travelling to Hampshire were granted prior to the War, but were withdrawn in 1916, and it is not proposed to reinstate them. The conditions in the case of the Kent hop pickers are very different, and it is the intention of the South-Eastern and Chatham Company to continue the special arrangements, which have been in operation for some years, whereby hop pickers travelling in that district have been carried by special trains after midnight at special fares. There is no intervention on the part of local Labour Exchanges or other authorities in respect of the issue of these tickets.