§ Rear-Admiral BEAMISHasked the Minister of Agriculture whether means have yet been found for rendering innocuous and non-polluting the effluent from sugar-beet factories; and whether all such factories are now using satisfactory means to purify their effluents?
§ Dr. ADDISONI am advised that the greater part of the water used in the process of manufacturing beet sugar can be circulated and used again throughout the campaign, thus avoiding its daily discharge from the factory, and that so much of it as cannot be re-used can be so treated that its subsequent discharge into a stream is unlikely to do harm. I am not in a position to give a comprehensive answer to the second part of the question. It is within my knowledge that certain factories are employing satisfactory methods of avoiding pollution, and I understand that there has been some improvement in others.