asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that offers to undertake harvesting work are being rejected by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland because of the availability of prisoners of war; and whether it is still necessary to employ juvenile labour.

It has been found possible to dispense with a proportion of the civilian labour, other than persons from Employment Exchanges, hitherto required for the grain harvest in consequence of the increases in the number of prisoners of war and other forms of supplementary labour. I regret, however, that the labour thus set free is not available to enable us to do without the services of school children for the potato harvest.

Will my right hon. Friend reconsider that reply, because it certainly will not give any encouragement to civilians to volunteer for future harvest work when prisoner of war labour is not available?