§ Lieut.-Colonel Heneageasked the Minister of Agriculture, what action is being taken to prevent the increase of rats in urban districts owing to war-time conditions and especially in cases where sewage drains have been damaged?
§ Mr. T. WilliamsThere is no reason to suppose that local authorities vested with powers under the Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919, are not fully alive, in the circumstances indicated, to the danger of rats increasing in urban districts. I understand that the Ministry of Food will shortly take steps through local Food Officers to deal with rat destruction in urban districts and my right hon. Friends the Ministers of Food and Agriculture have recently issued a joint appeal to local authorities and War Agricultural Executive Committees to make full use of their powers under the Act of 1919 and the Rats Order, 1940, and to join in a relentless campaign of rat destruction.