§ Mr. BOWERMANasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether any agreement has been reached regarding the rates of wages to be paid to the work-people employed in the mechanical transport stores depot, Royal Army Service Corps, which is about to be removed from the Deptford Cattle Market to the Feltham Aerodrome; and whether any arrangement has been made with respect to the payment of the railway fares of those who will be travelling to Feltham from London daily?
§ Mr. GWYNNEThe greater part of the work of the Mechanical Transport Stores Depot, formerly located at Deptford, has already been transferred to Feltham Aerodrome, and rates of wages considered appropriate, having due regard to the terms of the Fair Wages Resolution, for the mechanics and labourers at Feltham (which I understand is not within the engineering trade London wages' area), were communicated to the local authorities on 7th May. If by the term "agreement" the right hon. Member refers to a formal agreement with the workers' representatives, the answer is in the negative; but any question that it is desired to raise regarding any particular rate can, of course, be brought forward at the appropriate Whitley Council. As regards the second part of the question, it is not proposed, in the case of workmen engaged for work at2756W Feltham, to depart from the established principle that workmen pay any travelling expenses necessary between their homes and their places of employment.