asked the President of the Board of Trade the average price per ton at which reparation ships were disposed of, and how this price compared with the market rate of tonnage when the sales were effected?

The reparation ships, including vessels of widely different types and ages, were sold during the period extending from October, 1920, to December, 1921, a period during which values varied greatly, generally in the downward direction. The prices received varied from £38 per gross ton to less than 21 per gross ton, and the average price over the whole transaction was £11·1 per gross ton. The sales were open to all British buyers, and in certain cases to world buyers. The prices obtained were, therefore, the market rates for the ships in question at the date of sale.

Is it not possible to say what the price of tonnage was between October, 1920, and December, 1921. Surely, the Department has the information?

It all depends upon the class of tonnage.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that owing to the very large number of cases still to be heard, there is more work than the Anglo-German Mixed Arbitral Tribunal can dispose of within reasonable time, although the distinguished jurists comprising the tribunal are admittedly working at a high rate of speed; and whether he will consider the appointment of additional members of the tribunal so that it may sit in divisions as provided by Article 304 (c) of the Treaty of Versailles?

As I said on the 19th April, in answer to the hon. Member for South-East Southwark, active steps are now being taken with a view to setting up an additional division of the Anglo-German Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, and I hope that the arrangements will be completed at an early dte.

Can the Noble Lord say when that date will be; and is he aware that great feeling is being engendered against this Tribunal and much inconvenience is being caused owing to the fact that it has not enough staff and members; and although they are quite blameless in the matter is he aware that a great deal of loss has been experienced by firms in this country owing to these claims not having been heard?

Yes, the Board of Trade is aware of the difficulties, and we are doing everything in our power to extend the personnel of the tribunal, but the British Government is not the only authority concerned in this matter.

Can the Noble Lord say when this will be done—will it be within a month?

I would not like to promise that.

asked the Prime Minister whether the new Ordinance No. 167, setting up a pass barrier in the Rhineland, has received the assent of the British Commissioner; whether it is operative in the British occupied territory; and whether, in general, ordinances of the Commission from which the British representative dissents are effective in the territory occupied by British troops?

The answer to the first two parts of the question is in the negative. As regard the last part, ordinances arising out of Franco-Belgian independent action, on which His Majesty's High Commissioner, acting in accordance with his standing instructions, has abstained from voting, have not been carried into effect in he British zone.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what amount of expenditure has been incurred by the Reparation Commission, together with the commissions and other bodies subsidiary thereto, from its inception up to the present time?

I am informed that the total cost of the Reparation Commission and of its subsidiary bodies from its inception up to 31st December, 1922, the latest date for which information is available, is approximately £2,280,000, namely, £797,000 in 1920, £864,000 in 1921, and £619,000 in 1922. These sums include the cost of the national delegations and of the international staff, of the Committee of Guarantees, of the main office at Paris, and of local offices at Berlin, Essen, Beuthen (formerly at Mährisch-Ostrau), Wiesbaden, Vienna and Budapest. The total also includes about £40,000 in respect of the cost of the Organisation Committee of the Reparation Commission incurred prior to the coming into force of the Treaties. It does not include the cost of the Bureau at Berlin for the liquidation of German war material. The dirty of disposing of such material is not a function with which the Reparation Commission is charged by the Treaty of Versailles, but was assumed by the Commission, on behalf of the Allied Powers, at the request of the Conference of Ambassadors. The cost of the Bureau met out of the proceeds of the sales of war material.