HC Deb 24 November 1938 vol 341 c1955W
Sir M. Sueter

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will, in order to increase employment by an extension of the use of agricultural land, arrange for experimental planting of tobacco in Devon, Somerset or Cornwall on Government or privately-owned suitable land, as the tobacco plant grows well in some soils in South Oxfordshire?

Mr. W. S. Morrison

No, Sir. The question of tobacco growing in this country was exhaustively considered in 1923 by a committee appointed by the Treasury. The committee, whose report was issued as a Command Paper (No. 1983) in that year, came to the conclusion, for reasons which are equally valid to-day, that assistance from public funds to further experimental work on this crop would not be justified.