I welcome the opportunity which the hon. Member has given the House for reviewing the position with regard to camps, and for dealing with the establishment, in consequence of the Camps Act, of 15 or 20 camps, educational camps, each of which will accommodate as many boarding pupils as some of the great public schools in England. I think 250 is the number in Mill Hill School, a not incon- siderable school in the estimation of many people and certainly in the opinion of its pupils. We must regard the Camps Act as providing an opportunity not of shovelling into a series of boxes 200 or 300 children but an opportunity of founding a number of educational institutions whereby we may get the greatest possible advantage from an admitted disadvantage.

The experiment of school-camps was not delayed at the outbreak of war as the hon. Member suggested. At the outbreak of war a number of existing camps —not erected under the Camps Act—were filled with children from London, Newcastle, Gateshead and other places. In the opening days of the war over 5,000 children left for these camps and were accommodated for many weeks. Indeed, 3,500 children are still in the camps. From this we have learned many valuable lessons. It was the desire to take advantage of these lessons which explains the fact that some of the camps constructed by the National Camps Corporation are temporarily unoccupied—not through wastefulness or lethargy as suggested by the hon. Member.

Those who, like the Parliamentary Secretary and myself, have had an opportunity of reviewing the experience we have had from the transfer from day school conditions to boarding school conditions will realise that a perfectly different set of considerations apply. The teachers had as much to learn as the scholars on the novel transformation from day school conditions to boarding school conditions. Hon. Members who have had experience of boarding schools will know what a difference a good or bad housemaster may make to a house in a great public school, and how a lad's life in a bad boarding school may become a very unhappy experience indeed.

We had, of course, to continue to deal with those 5,000 children who were moved into camps. Some of the camps were well built and some of them were not so well built, and before we decided to carry them on as all-weather camps, extensive alterations had to be made, heating had to be installed, and so on. Some of them could not be used for children in all-weather conditions. At the outbreak of the war, 30 camps were occupied, and 24 are still occupied. The number of children in the camps has been brought down from 5,000, for which number the camps were suitable in the weather of September, to 3,500 to-day. The other children have had to be rehoused in big houses, hostels, residential schools suitable for winter occupation, and in one or two instances, in additional camps.

I come now to the actual experience of the Camps Corporation. I welcomed the tribute which the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr.:Mander) paid to their work. In particular I should like to commend the work of Lord Portal and Sir Edward Howarth, who have toiled unceasingly to complete the camps in accordance with the schedule and to take advantage of all possible experience in every weather, and who may now look upon their work with pride. Now that they have handed over to us these beautiful buildings, it is up to us to see that the best possible use is made of them. As the House will remember, we hoped originally that some 50 camps would be provided out of the £1,200,000 voted by Parliament, but I found it necessary to give a warning when the contracts were being placed that the cost would be greater than we had anticipated and that therefore the number would be somewhat smaller. This was to some extent due to the rise in prices which took place during the year, but to a greater extent to further improvements which had to be introduced as the camps passed from plans to actual buildings. In fact, some of the extra cost was due to requirements or suggestions made by this House itself.

The hon. Member for East Wolverhampton asked whether, when the programme is completed, a further programme will be undertaken. We shall certainly consider that. We shall need to consider it with reference to finance and, still more, to the materials available; but certainly, we do not close our mind to the provision of further camp buildings if and when we find that these are suitable. Of our present construction programme, I think we can say that the speed was good and that we made admirable progress up to the time of the crisis in the autumn, although we were slowed up thereafter. For England and Wales the figures are as given by the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton. There are five camps in Scotland, under the jurisdiction of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland. All five are in an advanced stage of construction. My right hon. Friend hopes that the first will be ready to be occupied by the end of February, and three more in April. All the testimony is that in both Scotland and England the camps are very pleasant to look upon from the aesthetic point of view, and well suited to the purpose for which they were intended. It is necessary to add, however, that the all-weather, permanent, use of the camps has involved certain alterations, and for use as schools classroom accommodation has had to be added—the Camps Corporation have had to add a classroom block. That has been done in all but one of the camps that are now ready, and is being done as part of the original construction in those approaching completion. Let me deal in passing with the remarks made by the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton which require an explanation as to why one of these camps has been occupied by adults instead of children.