§ Major GLYNasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware that in certain cases officials of the Air Ministry have approached private landowners and offered, under threat of the use of compulsory powers, terms of payment for land to be used as a practice ground for dropping live bombs, before discovering what the effect of such use of land would have on local industries and amenities; and whether he will undertake not to sanction the use of compulsory powers without a previous inquiry into local conditions?
§ Mr. MONTAGUEThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative, and to the second in the affirmative. Compulsory powers are employed only as a last resort when it has proved impossible to acquire land by voluntary arrangement, and I am advised that a threat to use them would not be, and has not been, held out in such circumstances as those refer red to by the hon. and gallant Member.