asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the number of agricultural workers registered as unemployed on 31st March, 1942, and on 30th September, 1942.

The particulars are not available for the precise dates indicated. The numbers of persons of all occupations normally engaged in agriculture who were on the live register at the employment exchanges and branch employment offices on 14th March, 1942, and 19th September, 1942, were 28,477 and 6,807 respectively. It will be borne in mind that at the later date the Unemployment Assistance (Unemployment Period) Orders, 1942, were in operation.