§ 98. Mr. J. Morrisonasked the Secretary of State for Air what is the total acreage of land in the British Isles held by the Air Ministry and the total acreage still under requisition; what acreage of this it is proposed to cultivate in view of the need for food production in the present emergency, and what area of land is to be de-requisitioned.
§ Mr. de FreitasIn the British Isles the Air Ministry owns 140,000 acres and holds 200,000 acres on requisition. About half these 340,000 acres has been made available for agriculture—nearly 80,000 for ploughing and nearly 90,000 for grazing, hay, grass drying or silage. It is the policy of my Department to increase the acreage for use in farming wherever possible. There will be a considerable reduction, compared with the present holdings, in the Air Ministry's permanent requirements for land. Not all of the surplus will, however, be derequisitioned, since we shall continue the practice of buying most surplus runwayed airfields and handing them over to the Ministry of Agriculture.