Mr. GORDON GRAYDON (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, items appearing in certain newspapers indicate that the government has under consideration an enlargement of the membership of the national war labour board. Is the Prime Minister in a position to make any announcement to the house with respect to these additional memberships?

Selective Service

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

I am not in a position to make any statement at the present time.

Mr. GRAYDON:

Does the Prime Minister expect to be able to make a statement shortly ?

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

I was asked a similar question some days ago and I replied that I had made "a very full statement in the house with respect to the organization of the board, and if there are to be any changes or additions the house will be informed in due course." I am afraid I cannot go beyond that at the present time.

Mr. GORDON GRAYDON (Leader of the Opposition):

The press to-day carries the

announcement of the Minister of Labour that the national selective service advisory board has been reconstituted by order in council. The board appears to have a membership of some nineteen persons, but there seems to be only one representative of agriculture and one representative of war veterans. Will the minister explain why these two important sections of our people are not more fully represented on the board in relation to others?

Hon. HUMPHREY MITCHELL (Minister of Labour):

My hon. friend is correct in

saying that there are nineteen members of the advisory committee of the national selective service. I think he will agree with me that the soundest thing to do in setting up such a committee is to keep it as small as possible, having due regard to the interests that should be represented. That, by the very nature of things, when you are dealing with man-power, involves government departments. If the hon. gentleman reads the order in council he will find that the Department of Agriculture is represented, the deputy minister being on that committee, and that defence, finance, and the prices board, are also represented, because they necessarily come into the picture. What we try to do is to get a broad crystallization of opinion, representing what may be called the dominant vocations and interests of the country. Practically all of these are represented - the construction industry, the railroads, industry in general, general stores, the big departmental stores, and the banks, also, as my hon. friend says, the organized veterans. The veterans did not

ask for representation, but we felt that they should be represented. If you go through the list you will find among the representatives of other callings many ex-service men of the last war. What we have tried to do, and I believe the soundness of our position will be apparent if it is examined, is to get as broad an opinion as possible in an advisory capacity on the question of man-power.

Mr. GRAYDON:

One of the great industries which is suffering with respect to lack of man-power is agriculture. The minister may be right when he says that the deputy minister of agriculture is one of the nominees I see here the name of Doctor Barton-but he is grouped with a number of government employees who are working together in regard to this matter. The minister should give further consideration to the appointment on behalf of agriculture of another representative with practical experience. It seems to me that one representative only of agriculture is an underestimate of the situation in respect of agriculture and man-power at the present time.

Mr. MITCHELL:

Doctor Barton has a

wealth of practical advice behind him. My hon. friend's complaint is not fair. Coming as my hon. friend does from a partly rural constituency he knows Doctor Barton has expert advice in his own department and opportunity to obtain advice on every matter that may come up affecting agriculture. With respect to the appointment of a representative of agriculture, of course we went to the agricultural organizations for that nomination.

Mr. ROSS (Souris):

Will the minister

consider immediately the appointment of a representative of western agriculture? The only practical agricultural representative on the board is from the province of Quebec. Following what my leader (Mr. Graydon) has said, it seems to me that western agriculture should be represented by a practical representative. Labour has five representatives.

Mr. MITCHELL:

I think my hon. friend

will agree that twenty-three members is a large number for an advisory council. What we have endeavoured to do is to go to the national organizations. It so happens that the farmers' organization that was consulted was a national organization, and they made that appointment. If all these industries were given representation on a reasonable basis you would probably have an advisory council bigger than this House of Commons, which would make its functioning almost impossible.

Royal Canadian Navy

Mr. J. G. DIEFENBAKER (Lake Centre):

I should like to address a question to the Minister of Labour. In a news service issued to-day the following appears:

Task of tracing evaders is to be carried on by Associated Credit Bureaus of Canada Limited, an organization with some fifty-eight offices across the country.

Has any arrangement been made under which Associated Credit Bureaus are to be connected in any way with the location of defaulters?