asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) at what offices health insurance stamps of the values of 7s. 7d. and 6s. 6d., respectively, can be obtained; and at what offices these stamps are now kept in stock; and (2) whether the forms of application for supplies of insurance stamps of 7s. 7d. and 6s. 6d., respectively, are now obtainable at all post offices at which these stamps are not kept in stock?

Stamps of the denominations mentioned will be on sale at all head and branch post offices in the first week of the quarter commencing on the 15th instant. At all other post offices they will be obtained on two or three days' notice being given. The forms of application for these stamps will be kept in stock at head and branch post offices, and will be forwarded to sub-post offices with any supply of stamps requisitioned by them.

Will not the right hon. Gentleman be able to carry out his promise, made last September, that the forms of application for these stamps should be available at all post offices?

I will inquire and see if that is not possible.

asked the Postmaster-General if, with a view to meeting the convenience of employers in some degree, he will arrange for the issue of books of insurance stamps?

I am giving special consideration to this suggestion, and should be glad to receive evidence of any public demand for the sale of stamps, in this form.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has considered the right of Ireland, under the equivalent grant arrangement of 1888, to 9 per cent. of the amount of the additional charges for medical relief now proposed to be contributed under the National Insurance Act from the Imperial Exchequer; and whether he will consider the advisability, from the point of view of health and comfort of the poorest part of the Irish population, of applying the funds to which Ireland is thus entitled to contributing, in the same proportion as under the Irish Agricultural Labourers Acts, towards providing housing accommodation at 1s. a week for the labourers in the cities and towns of Ireland?

The question of making an Exchequer Grant in connection with the work to be performed by doctors in Ireland under the National Insurance Act is now under consideration. Pending a decision in this matter, it would, I fear, be impossible to express any opinion upon the suggestion contained in the second part of the hon. Member's question.

May we take it for granted that the representatives of Ireland will have some opportunity of discussing the matter before the £1,500,000 is voted?

There will be representatives of every part of the United Kingdom.

When may we hope for a statement in the present Session?

So far as I have the leave of the House.

asked if any qualifications with regard to age, medical reputation, and proficiency are imposed in regard to doctors whose names are placed on the panels under the National Insurance Act?

Under Section 15 (1) (6) of the National Insurance Act every duly qualified practitioner has a right to be included in a panel list if a panel is formed in his area. The power of removal, which is provided for in the same Section, is conditional upon subsequent inquiry showing that the continuance of a particular practitioner would be prejudicial to the efficiency of the medical service of the insured; and, in accordance with the request of the medical profession, the regulations with regard to such an inquiry require careful investigation by a specially constituted central body, including members of the profession.

Have any professional gentlemen who have sent in their names to be included on the panels been refused?

No. The committees have no right to refuse the names that are sent in to be on the panel, if a panel is formed.

Are the public to understand that doctors will be placed on the panels, for whom they are paying, irrespective of whether or not they are competent to carry out the work?

As I said in my reply, every duly qualified practitioner has a right to be included in the panel list when the panel is formed. That is no resolution of the Commissioners, but a Resolution of the House of Commons.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there are plenty of duly qualified medical practitioners whom the insured persons will not be prepared to accept?

There is no reason why they should accept them if they do not want them. The hon. Gentleman is really criticising an action which is the almost unanimous action of the House of Commons.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that that unanimous Resolution is not being carried out?

It is being carried out, and in no case are the Commissioners doing anything but carrying it out.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury what was the number of insured persons which it was originally intended to allocate to each doctor under the National Insurance Act; and what sum would have been earned yearly on the basis of the latest terms offered to the doctors?

The National Insurance Act does not contemplate any fixed number of insured persons being allocated to a practitioner. On the contrary, the system of free choice by the insured person, subject to the consent of the practitioners, involves considerable variation in the numbers and a corresponding variation in the total remuneration. The second part of the question does not, therefore, arise.

asked if the circular dated 31st December, 1912, issued to Post Office medical officers, is intended to imply that their services will be discontinued in the event of their not joining a panel under the National Insurance Act?

The answer is in the negative. The great majority of Post Office employes are not liable to compulsory insurance, and these persons will in any case remain under the charge of the Post Office medical officers. In Ireland also no question arises on this head. With respect to those Post Office employes who are insurable for medical benefit under the Act, I understand that the Insurance Commissioners are prepared to approve the present Post Office medical system as applicable and its officers as eligible to attend these insured persons. This, of course, does not prejudice the right of the insured persons to the attendance of some other doctor who is on the panel if they should so prefer.

Am I to understand clearly, because Post Office employes will be glad to know, that in the event of the doctors not being on the panel the employes will still be allowed to have the services of the same medical gentlemen?

I understand that the hon. Gentleman is referring to Post Office medical officers who are not on the panel—yes, they would.

asked if the Secretary to the Treasury has been furnished with the Report of the Committee presided over by the hon. Member for Inverness on the special circumstances of the Highlands and Islands under the National Insurance Act, and when the said Report will be laid upon the Table of the House?

The Report of this Committee was laid on the Table of the House yesterday.

In view of the fact that none of the doctors in Orkney and Shetland have agreed to accept service will the right hon. Gentleman be able to give effect to this Report as soon as possible?

This is an important Report, and it will certainly be considered as soon as possible. I think the hon. Member is wrong, and that the doctors are willing to accept service under the Act.

I wish to ask the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the following question of which I have given him private notice: What is the earliest date on which an insured person can become entitled to maternity benefit under the Insurance Act; and can notice of the illness of an insured person be given before the 13th January, and if so, what will be the earliest date on which such insured person, if still ill, can become entitled to sickness benefit?

Notice of illness of an insured person can be given before the 13th January. If he is ill on Thursday, 9th January, or is taken ill before doing any effective work on Friday, 10th January, he will be entitled to sickness benefit (if he continues to be incapable of work) as from Monday, 13th January, provided that he has at the latter date been in insurance for twenty-six weeks, and twenty-six full contributions have been paid in respect of him. An employed contributor is entitled to maternity benefit in respect of a child born after twelve midnight on Sunday, 12th January, if he has been in insurance twenty-six weeks, and if twenty-six full contributions have been paid.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that, although the High Court has decided in the case of the Duke of Beaufort v. The Inland Revenue Commissioners that Mineral Rights Duty is payable on the amount of rent actually paid by a lessee to a lessor, and not upon the amount deducted in respect of Income Tax, the Inland Revenue Commissioners have claimed and received payments on the assumption that Mineral Rights Duty was payable on amounts deducted in respect of Income Tax; and, seeing that the Commissioners have declined to refund money paid on that assumption, will he state by what statutory or other authority the Commissioners disregard the decision of the High Court, and retain moneys to which they have been declared not to be legally entitled?

Since the date of the decision to which the hon. Member refers, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue have only claimed payment of Mineral Eights Duty on the net amount of rent actually paid after deduction of Income Tax. The decision in question has been appealed against, and, while the Commissioners have intimated their willingness to make appropriate repayment should the final decision of the Courts be adverse to the Crown, they have declined to take that step until a final decision has been obtained.

If any repayments are made, will they include interest?

The usual practice, whatever it is, will be followed. I am not sure what it is.

asked the Secretary for Scotland whether any payment is made in respect of work done by the Secretary of the Scottish Education Department for reporting on and superintending higher education in secondary and intermediate schools apart from his salary on the Votes, and, if any, the amount paid in respect of such services in each of the last ten financial years?

No such additional payment is made or has been made since the year 1904–5.

asked the Secretary for Scotland if he can so alter the terms of the Scottish Office Memorandum on the Shops Act, and especially the note on page 5, so as to enable fishmongers who have fixed upon Monday for the weekly holiday to sell dried fish on the Tuesday, when Tuesday is fixed by grocers for the holiday?

I do not think that the terms of the note referred to lead to the conclusion implied in my hon. Friend's question. The Memorandum is explanatory only, and opinions therein expressed as to the scope and meaning of provisions in the Act have, of course, no legislative effect. Consequently, no alteration in the terms of the Memorandum would vary the law, which must depend upon the words of the Statute, interpreted as they may be from time to time in the Courts of Law.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this note has been interpreted locally in a different way?

I am, but I do not think the interpretation is correct.

asked the Secretary for Scotland if he has now considered the Report submitted to the Scottish Fishery Board on the prospects of developing oyster and mussel culture on the West Coast of Shetland; and if he can furnish the Zetland County Council with the result of the inquiry?

The Fishery Board for Scotland are considering the Report referred to, together with reports regarding other areas in Scotland, but they are not yet in a position to furnish a full Report on the whole subject, or to make any communication to the local authority.

asked the Secretary for Scotland whether his attention has been drawn to the resolutions adopted at a large meeting of representatives of parish councils from all parts of Scotland, recently held in Glasgow, in favour of a separate Bill for Scotland dealing with the care and control of the feeble minded; and whether, having regard to the representations on this subject received from Scotland and to the fact that the Poor and Lunacy Laws of Scotland are essentially different from those of England, he will consider as to the introduction of a separate Scottish Bill dealing with the subject, instead of bringing Scotland within the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Bill?

My attention has been drawn to the resolutions in question. I cannot at present give any undertaking on the subject, but I expect shortly to receive the views of the parish councils in greater detail, and shall then be in a better position to come to a final decision.

Will not the right hon. Gentleman accept in principle the statement made in the question?

I think there is a good deal to be said for it.

asked the Secretary for Scotland whether he is aware that in the Aberdeen police cells women prisoners, under arrest but unconvicted, are required to sleep on plank beds, and that in the same place women prisoners, although not allowed out of their cells for any purpose throughout the night, are under constant surveillance by male warders, these warders frequently making use of the spyhole in the door and also coining into the women's cells at frequent intervals during the night; and whether he will take steps to have women prisoners under such circumstances placed under the surveillance of female warders?

I am informed that wooden beds are as a rule provided for prisoners under detention in the Aberdeen police cells, but that in the cases to which my hon. Friend presumably refers the prisoners were allowed the use of blankets or rugs. It is not the case that they were under constant observation by male warders. A female attendant is in charge of the female block of cells, and all the cells are under the supervision of the male superintendent. In the course of the night to which the question seems to refer, the superintendent paid two visits of inspection to the cells, the female attendant being on duty close by on both occasions. Such visits, I understand, are in the ordinary routine; but I propose to make further inquiry into their necessity.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture, in regard to the Winterbourne Zelstone estate, Dorset, if he can give the amount of the assessment prior to the purchase by the county council and the amount at the present date; upon whom do they fall; and can he see his way to ordering a revaluation of the land and adaptations, with a view of easing the burden of small holders?

I am informed by the county council that the Winterbourne Zelstone estate prior to the purchase was assessed at £679 10s. (namely, land, £575 2s., and buildings, £104 8s.), and that the present assessment is £821 (namely, land, £600 10s., and buildings, £220 10s.). There is some doubt, however, whether the former assessment includes all the property included in the latter, and I am making further inquiry on this point. Under the terms of their agreements the small holders are liable for the payment of rates. The Board have no power to order a revaluation, but it is open to the small holders to appeal against their assessments if they desire to do so.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that these houses have been condemned by the medical officer of health?

I do not think that arises out of the question.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that manure from the quarantine sheds in Glasgow and Dundee is being sold or offered for sale; what is meant by disinfecting farmyard manure; whether he is aware that the directors of the Highland and Agricultural Society have unanimously expressed the opinion that it is not possible to disinfect manure so completely as to give adequate protection against its carrying the infection of foot-and-mouth disease; and why it is necessary that cattle should be isolated for three weeks after they have left the quarantine if the manure produced by them in quarantine is free from disease?

The answer to the first and third parts of the question is in the affirmative. Manure is not removed from the wharves until all the animals have been closely examined by a veterinary inspector of the Board and found to be free from foot-and-mouth disease. It is then thoroughly mixed with quicklime before removal. The cattle are isolated for three weeks as a safeguard against the spread of infection in case disease which may have been in the incubative stage during the period of quarantine should afterwards develop. Although there is no evidence to support the supposition that manure produced by animals in the incubative stage of the disease is infective, it is desirable as a precaution that the manure should be disinfected in the manner which I have described before it is removed from the wharves.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think it would be very much better to alter the arrangements?

No, I do not think that is in the least necessary. I am advised by my experts that safeguards as to animals in Scotland are fully secured by these arrangements.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture if he is now in a position to make a definite statement regarding the restrictions on store cattle from Munster and Connaught?

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is in a position to make any statement regarding the importation of Irish store cattle into Scotland and England?

Subject to the completion of arrangements with the Irish Department, the Regulations affecting the importation of Irish cattle into Great Britain will be varied as from Saturday next by an Order which will be issued to-morrow, reducing the period of detention at the ports of arrival from four days to twelve hours from the time of the landing of the cargo, during which they are to be rested, fed, watered, and inspected. These cattle will be permitted to be removed from the landing place either to a slaughter-house for slaughter or the farms to which they are consigned, where they will have to be under observation for a period of twenty-one days—provided, of course, that the whole of the animals forming part of the same cargo have been examined and certified free from foot-and-mouth disease.

Is no distinction to be made in the case of cattle from Munster and from Connaught, where there has been no disease for thirty years, and cattle from countries where there has been disease within a month?

I have explained several times that it is impossible to make this arrangement. The Irish Department find it quite impracticable in regard to the traffic of animals to and fro, and as it is impracticable I do not propose to embark upon it.

Has the right hon. Gentleman communicated with the Great Southern and Western Railway or with the Midland and Great Western Railway as to whether it is possible practically to insure that cattle shipped either from Connaught or from Munster ports should not in any way be commingled with the cattle from any other district?

No. I have had no communication with these railway companies. It is not my business to do so. The Irish Department will do that. The main cattle traffic is not done from the ports in Munster. The main cattle traffic from Munster and Connaught, I am informed, is through Dublin.

Who was it who gave the right hon. Gentleman the information that cattle from county Cork went through Dublin?

I did not say county Cork; I said Munster, and the information came from the Irish Department.

Has the right hon. Gentleman made up his mind as to the twelve hours' detention of all cattle, and will he hold out any hope of reducing the twelve hours' detention on this side?

In answer to a question last week, I pointed out that we must have some experience of the twelve hours' arrangement before I can make any promise as to the future.

Are we to understand that when the new Regulations come into force, store cattle, after twelve hours' detention and inspection here, will not be allowed to be shown in markets and fairs in this country?

No, at the present stage I do not propose to throw open the markets in this way. I hope to do that at an early date. The change which I am making now is from four days to twelve hours—a considerable step in the right direction.

At what likely date will store cattle be allowed to be shown in the markets and fairs in this country?

I cannot say.

Does the right hon. Gentleman intend to convey, as regards Munster and Connaught cattle, that the Irish Department and the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. T. W. Russell) approve of his Regulations?

It is not a question for the approval or disapproval of the right hon. Gentleman. I have to act on my own responsibility.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture if he can state the number of pigs that died in transit between Irish ports and the English foreign wharfs since the embargo was placed on live pigs from Ireland; and is he aware that, for want of proper accommodation at the different lairages and the consequent exposure to cold, numbers died and exporters have suffered losses?

During the last six months 273 pigs have died or been slaughtered in transit between Ireland and Great Britain, 487 have been slaughtered on arrival at Birkenhead and three at Glasgow on account of injuries or other causes. So far as the Board have been able to ascertain there have been no deaths on account of exposure at any British ports.

Now that it is quite clear that there is no foot-and-mouth disease among pigs in Ireland, will the right hon. Gentleman permit them to be sent over to England and Scotland?

:I have already stated that I cannot make any change in the arrangements.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture what steps, if any, are taken by his Department to prevent hay and straw, which has been brought into this country as packing materials for goods imported from countries where foot-and-mouth disease exists, being used for bedding or other purposes?

The Board have under consideration the issue of a notice to the principal importers of foreign merchandise inviting them to co-operate in preventing foreign hay and straw imported as packing material from being used as bedding for animals or for other agricultural purposes.

Are there any regulations in force at present?

There is no regulation in force at present.

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider that there is more chance of the disease being imported into England by foreign hay and straw than by hay and straw imported from Ireland?

This matter was fully inquired into by the Departmental Committee. I am prepared to abide by their findings.

Can those who are keenly interested in the matter have a Committee to inquire into the whole subject?

That does not arise out of this question.

asked if it is, proposed to adopt any, and, if any, which of the recommendations of the Departmental Committee on Foot-and-Mouth Disease?

I would refer the hon. Member to the answer which I gave to a similar question addressed to me by the hon. Member for the Barkston Ash Division on the 17th December last.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether his expert veterinary advisers have on further investigation and inquiry been able to identify any of the cattle diseases known in Ireland as timber tongue, noninfectious foot-and-mouth disease, or dirty mouth, said to be now prevalent in county Armagh; whether any of such diseases are known in other parts of the United Kingdom; and, if so, under what names?

Timber tongue is known in Great Britain as actinomycosis. Non-infectious foot-and-mouth disease is, as I have already stated in answer to previous questions, unknown to the veterinary officers of the Board. The disease popularly known as dirty mouth has been found among cattle imported from Ireland, but, so far as the Board are aware, it is not prevalent in Great Britain.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that timber tongue was reported subsequently to the outbreak at Swords in Ireland, to have turned out to be foot-and-mouth disease?

According to my recollection of the facts in the Swords case, timber tongue was the title given to the disease, not by a veterinery officer at all, but by some one not capable of giving a diagnosis of the disease.

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether actinomycosis is not infectious?

I express no opinion whatever upon that.

asked the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland), whether restrictions on the export of pressed hay from Kilrush to English ports are still in force; and, if so, whether, in view of the fact that the area concerned is so remote from the localities where foot-and-mouth disease existed, and considering also the number of working men, farmers, and carriers, who depend on this trade, he can promise that the restrictions will be now removed?

The Department are informed by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries that they are not at present prepared to modify the terms of their Order which prohibits the landing in Great Britain of hay or straw from Ireland.

Has the right hon. Gentleman made any representation to his colleague in the English Board of Agriculture in regard to this matter with the object of inducing that Board to remove the restrictions?

We are in communication with the English Department, and draft Orders are being considered by both Departments.

Does not it look like an absurdity to impose these restrictions in Clare, because you are dealing with a problem in another part of Ireland which is very remote from it?

asked the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) what steps, if any, are taken by his Department to prevent hay and straw, which has been brought into Ireland as packing material for goods imported from foreign countries where foot-and-mouth disease exists, being used for bedding or other purposes where animals are liable to come into contact with them?

I shall be happy to hand the hon. Gentleman a copy of a Memorandum on this subject, which was widely circulated by the Department in October last.

Are there any restrictions imposed with regard to this hay and straw packing?

No; we have no power to impose any such restrictions.

Are we to understand that there are no restrictions on the admission of hay and straw into Ireland, and there are restrictions on its going out of Ireland?

Is the right hon. Gentleman now satisfied that the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at Ballysax at the Curragh and Kildare was due to the fact that pigs were bedded with some straw packing from France, and also with straw bottle-envelopes from France, and is the Department in Ireland satisfied that the packing coming from France was the cause of the outbreak?

I stated more than a month ago that that was the opinion of the veterinary officers who superintended the work at Ballysax.

What steps have you taken to prevent another outbreak from the same cause?

Is the British Government to keep us subject to outbreaks coming from France while the British Government will not allow our hay to be sent from places where there has been no disease for thirty years?

Immediately on the matter being investigated I communicated with the military authorities throughout the whole of Ireland and they undertook to see that all these materials would in future be burned.

Why are they allowed in? Why do not you stop them as our hay is stopped coming into England?

asked whether, in regard to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, any special efforts were made by the Department to discover the causes of the outbreak and to investigate thoroughly the etiology of the disease; whether, in the event of such investigations having been undertaken, the Department called in the co-operation of expert biologists outside the staff of the Department; whether any success was met with in the course of such labours, for instance, whether a specific microbe was identified as the immediate cause; and whether he will place upon the Table of the House a Paper giving details of such scientific work as is here indicated?

The answer to the first two parts of the question is in the affirmative. For detailed information as to the steps taken by the Board to investigate the etiology and pathology of foot- and-mouth disease I would refer the hon. Member to the Minutes of Evidence given before the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into foot-and-mouth disease (Cd. 6244 of 1912). The Annual Report of the Animals Division of the Board for the year 1911 (Cd. 6136 of 1912) also contains useful information on the subject. As I have already informed the House, a Committee of Inquiry is at the present time conducting further scientific investigations in India on behalf of the Board.

In view of the importance of the subject, will the right hon. Gentleman prepare a Special Paper bringing the information together in one compendious form, and lay it on the Table of the House as soon as possible?

Up to the end of 1911 the whole of the information was drawn together by the Departmental Committee. Further information has been given in the Report of the Committee, and I will send the hon. Member copies of both.

Could we not have more up-to-date information than that contained in a Report eighteen months old?

Foot-and-mouth disease has not changed in the last eighteen months. Any further information obtained by the Committee will be made public as soon as possible.

asked the Prime Minister if his attention has been drawn to the statement made by the Prime Minister of Canada that His Majesty's Ministers, as also the Leaders of the Opposition, have explicitly accepted the principle that, in view of recent developments, the great Overseas Dominions should necessarily be entitled to share in the responsibility for the direction of Imperial policy; and whether, in view of the desirability of obtaining a settlement by consent of the constitutional changes involved by the passing of the Government of Ireland Bill, the Government will consider the possibility of summoning this year a Conference of representatives of all nationalities and political parties of the United Kingdom to reconsider the inseparable problems of Home Rule and the constitution and the powers of a Second Chamber, with the possibility of strengthening that Chamber in an Imperial sense by the admission of representatives of the Overseas Dominions duly elected by those Dominions?

Much as I should welcome a settlement of these matters by consent, I fear that the proposals made by my hon. Friend would not be practicable at the present moment.

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he is aware that the speech of Mr. Borden, from which this statement is an extract, concluded with these words: "This question of Imperial responsibility closely affects the future destinies of the Empire, and however difficult the task may be, it is not the part either of wisdom or statesmanship to evade it"?

I entirely agree with it.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman admit that the plain and clear duty before the Government is to undertake this work?

Yes, but not to take any particular step at any particular moment. The whole question requires most careful consideration.

asked the Prime Minister whether he is now in a position to state what steps the Government propose to hasten desired reforms in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge?

The Government are still considering what steps, if any, they can usefully take in regard to this matter.

asked the Prime Minister whether Sir William Smith, who recently retired from the position of Superintendent of Construction Accounts and Contract Work, and has now been appointed a director of Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth has, for many years, had official business relations with this firm; and, seeing that, notwithstanding the high esteem in which Sir William Smith is held, this is a case where the public interest might be adversely affected, whether he will make a declaration that public servants should not, in the opinion of His Majesty's Government, accept paid offices with business firms with whom they have been associated while in the public service, unless specially sanctioned and approved by the Minister of each Department responsible to Parliament?

Sir William Smith, I am informed, has not been appointed a director of Messrs. Sir William G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company or to any position of executive authority in the firm. He has simply been retained by the firm for the purpose of rendering it professional assistance on any point on which it may desire his services. This position was not offered to or held out to Sir William Smith in any way for some months after his retirement from the Admiralty; and during the time that he held the position of Superintendent of Construction Accounts and Contract Work he had simply charge of the technical matters relating to the construction of ships by private firms, and in no way was he officially concerned with the placing of contracts with private firms. As regards the last part of the question, the Treasury has no legal right under existing powers to prevent acceptance of such positions by public servants who have retired from the service. So far as I am aware, there is already a proper disposition on the part of public servants to communicate to the Minister concerned their intention to take up outside employment on their retirement from the public service.

Is the Prime Minister aware that the Colonial Secretary made a statement to the House last week that, in his opinion, it is not desirable that Governors should accept directorships in companies associated with the Colonies in which they have held administration?