Lieut.-Colonel Geoffrey Clifton-Brown:

asked the Minister of Agriculture when the accounts of the county agricultural committees for 1946 will be published.

Payments and receipts, by or on behalf of county war agricultural executive committees form part of the annual Appropriation Accounts of my right hon. Friend's Department and are included in the annual volumes of Civil Appropriation Accounts, which are usually published early in the calendar year following the financial year to which they relate.

Lieut.-Colonel Clifton-Brown:

When the accounts are published, will it be clearly shown whether the farms of the agricultural committees are run at a profit or a loss?

I believe that the accounts are in considerable detail, and I have no doubt that they will give that information.

Will the hon. and learned Solicitor-General pass on to his right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture the fact that, hitherto, the accounts have never shown the actual profits and losses due to farming, and that there has been great secrecy over this which has led to the suspicion that nearly all the farming is carried on at a loss?

I am not aware of any secrecy or any suspicion, but I have no doubt that my right hon. Friend will bear in mind what the hon and gallant Gentleman says.

Will the hon. and learned Solicitor-General ask his right hon Friend the Minister of Agriculture to give him further and better particulars?