§ Mr. RAFFANasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture what steps are taken by the Agricultural Organisation Society, which is in receipt of a Government subsidy of £45,000 this year, to obtain regular contributions from its members, who have a reputed annual trade turnover exceeding £8,000,000; whether such trade turnover points to the fact that the members are able to pay for the maintenance of this society; whether he will state the reasons why only 151 farmers' societies and 190 allotment societies paid affiliation fees last year to the Agricultural Organisation Society, considering that it claimed to have over 1,100 affiliated societies at the end of 1918; and what steps, if any, have been taken by the Agricultural Organisation Society or the Ministry of Agriculture to bring to the attention of societies affiliated to the Agricultural Organisation Society the full conditions on which the subsidy is granted?
Sir A. BOSCAWENI am informed that the Agricultural Organisation Society has called the special attention of all its affiliated societies to their obligation to make the prescribed contribution to the society for the current year, and that the collection of these contributions is being actively carried out by the fifteen branch committees which are elected by the local societies.
279WThe ability of societies to pay the prescribed contributions cannot be gauged solely by their trading turnover. The contributions received by the society during the year 1918–19, although a considerable advance on previous years, were admittedly not adequate, but the society is making every endeavour to secure the payment of regular contributions by its affiliated societies, and the amount of assistance that will be forthcoming from Government sources for this and the next three years will depend on the ability of the society to raise an adequate voluntary income. I understand that this has been brought to the notice of the affiliated societies.