§ Viscount WOLMERasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the vocational training centre, Thornhill, is issuing notices and advertisements to the effect that it is prepared to undertake work for the public, in competition with private firms, for bootmaking, upholstering, market garden produce, etc.; whether this work is undertaken by the authority and instructions of the Army Council; and, if so, whether the Government will discontinue subsidised competition against private firms who have to pay rates and taxes?
§ Major ATTLEEThe centre referred to does not undertake work for the general public, but only for the troops, and I understand that the only notice or advertisement issued was a notice in command orders. The answer to the second part of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the last part, the general policy is that the products of vocational training centres shall be charged for at fair market rates, and I am not prepared to agree that those products shall be scrapped. Such a course would be a1146W waste of public money, besides being very discouraging to the soldiers employed on the work.