Mr. H. Stewartasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of War Transport if he is aware of the difficulty experienced at the present time by Fife farmers in getting their seed potatoes loaded and transferred by rail; and what steps he is taking to ease the situation.
§ Mr. Noel-BakerIn all parts of the country, the railways are finding it difficult to move the heavy traffic they are now asked to carry. Until my hon. Friend put down his Question, however, I had not heard of any special difficulty about the transport by rail of seed potatoes from Fifeshire. Priority is given to wagons and sheets for this traffic; whenever possible additional trains are run. I may add that 15,000 more tons of seed potatoes have been brought by rail from Scotland to England this year than were brought during the same period a year ago.