Mrs Lucy Middleton: I am sorry I did not make myself clear, but that was the point of what I was saying. I appeal to the Minister to substitute voluntary co-operation for compulsion.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Minister of Agriculture when the additional supplies of hard corn for poultry breeding purposes are to be made available this season.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: While I thank the Minister for that reply, can he say when this will be available in the South Western district?
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that there is land lying derelict within the area of the Kingsbridge Rural District Council on which formerly crops of early potatoes were produced; and when he proposes to take steps to bring back this land into cultivation.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: Before my right hon. Friend concludes his remarks I would like to ask him a question. I understood him to say that the owners of war damaged property would be slightly worse off than those whose property was acquired and had not been subject to war damage. Was he referring to the original value payments in that regard, or to converted value payments, or did his remarks apply to both? I would...
Mrs Lucy Middleton: I welcome this new Clause. As I indicated in a Question to the Minister yesterday, I wish that the 1939 standard could also be replaced for the people who are to get the original value payments, as well as those who will get the converted value payments. I agree with the Minister that this new Clause will end the dispute which has been raging ever since it was announced that the cost of works...
Mrs Lucy Middleton: If I may press the point further, I think I am right in saying that converted payments are only made within reconstruction areas. There are no converted value payments outside those areas, and therefore all the properties which attract the converted value payments will be those acquired by local authorities.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Minister of Defence what are the food rations per head supplied weekly to the wives and children of British Services personnel at present resident in Germany; whether these rations comprise the only source of food available to the recipients; or by what other means the rations can be augmented.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: Is my right hon. Friend aware that Services and civilian personnel are sending food parcels to this country, to the extent, in some cases, of 2 lb. of butter in one parcel? In view of the food situation existing in Germany, does he not think that this practice is deplorable, and will he take steps to see that the sending of food parcels to this country from Germany is prohibited?
Mrs Lucy Middleton: On a point of Order. Is the hon. Gentleman in Order on this Amendment in discussing the matters which he is now raising?
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Minister of Fuel and Power, what guidance or instructions he proposes to issue to the medical profession in connection with the granting of medical certificates allowing the use of gas and electricity for spaceheating purposes in residential premises.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: Can my hon. Friend say whether any steps are being taken by the Ministry to see that there is no abuse of these certificates by citizens who have really no claim to consideration?
Mrs Lucy Middleton: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that, nonetheless, there has been considerable abuse in other directions?
Mrs Lucy Middleton: I do not intend to follow the hon. and gallant Member for Eastern Dorset (Colonel Wheatley) except to say one thing with regard to the closing passages of his speech. I have not yet had very much experience in this House, but I have seen a Committee stage on the Floor of the House; I have also taken some part in the discussions on this Bill and another Bill in Standing Committee upstairs, and...
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty whether he will consider re-establishing at Plymouth the centre for the demobilisation of Naval personnel, in view of the fact that under the present arrangements Plymouth men must travel from Plymouth to Portsmouth in order to obtain their demobilisation suits.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty if he will give particulars of the electricity undertaking in His Majesty's dockyard at Devonport, including details of the generating equipment and of the maximum production by each generating unit.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: While recognising fully the economic arguments put forward by the Chancellor, I would like to ask him whether he has taken into consideration any system of deferred credits, by which when production reaches the level which we hope and believe it will before long the women will have made up to them what they are losing at the present time by the deferment of equal pay?
Mrs Lucy Middleton: Is it not a fact that if the property had received a cost-of-works award it would not come under the Profits Tax, and that it is because it comes under the value payment that it is brought within the scope of this tax? It seems to me, therefore, that there is in fact discrimination between two different categories of property that were lost as the result of the war.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty what use has been made of the electric cable which had been reeved, clipped, and connected to H.M.S. "Terrible" at Devonport and which, under a recent order, consequent upon alterations of specifications, was removed.
Mrs Lucy Middleton: Is my hon. Friend aware that the cable could have been salvaged, but that was not done, and will he please explain to the House why this wanton wastage is allowed in the dockyards, and what he proposes to do in order to stop it?