Brigadier-General Brownasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that Italian prisoners, employed on drainage schemes, are given rubber boots to work in while agricultural labourers, doing similar work on farms, are forbidden to buy them; and whether, in future, he will give the agricultural labourer priority in articles necessary for food production over aliens and prisoners of war?
§ Mr. T. WilliamsIn issuing permits for rubber boots, county war agricultural executive committees give priority to374W applications from farm workers who require them for work on land drainage. There should, therefore, be no difficulty in obtaining rubber boots for that purpose. My right Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War is responsible for clothing prisoners of war, but I understand that rubber boots are not provided unless prisoners are working in water of appreciable depth.