Mr. E. P. Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will impress upon all rural courts the need for the utmost caution when dealing with applications for eviction orders against non-tied agricultural workers
198Wdate without a disproportionate amount of work. The following table, however, gives the information for 16 of the principal towns in Scotland for the winter and summer seasons of 1942 and 1943.
occupying tied cottages and make it clear that such applications should not be granted because they have the backing of the local war agricultural executive committee, having regard to the acute shortage of alternative accommodation and the hardships entailed.
§ Mr. H. MorrisonI have no reason to believe that magistrates' courts do not have regard to all the relevant facts and circumstances in dealing with such applications and it would not be right for me to attempt to influence the courts as to the weight to be given to any particular class of evidence.