§ Sir A. SINCLAIRasked the secretary of State for Dominion Affairs 1496W whether, in view of the fact that the Empire Marketing Board has decided to make a grant of £40,000 a year for five years to the Ministry of Agriculture in order to promote the advertisement and sale of home-grown produce to England and Wales, and seeing that the responsibilities of that Ministry are limited, a corresponding grant will be made to the Board of Agriculture for Scotland in order to promote the advertisement and sale of Scottish home-grown produce?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREI have been asked, as Acting-Chairman of the Empire Marketing Board, to take this question:
The grant of £40,000 referred to in the question was not for advertisement but for the encouragement of marketing, research and demonstration in accordance with an application from the Ministry of Agriculture. Similarly grants are already being made for Scotland in accordance with applications submitted by the Board of Agriculture for scotland. I would refer my hon. Friend particularly to the substantial grant for investigation and demonstration of uses of milk, to the joint scheme of investigation of the hill pasture problems and the joint scheme on poultry, all now being actively prosecuted in Scotland under grants from the Empire Marketing Board. Other schemes concerning proposed Scottish investigations are being frequently submitted to the Board, which is always prepared to consider on their merits applications from Scotland or any other part of the Empire, more especially when the work proposed to be undertaken promises to be of benefit to more than one Empire country.