asked the Secretary of State for War if any arrangements have been made for officers of the Regular Forces to undergo a course of wireless telegraphy preparatory to the forthcoming manœuvres; if so, whether such instruction will be confined to any particular branch of the Service, or if Territorial officers will be required to qualify; and whether officers holding certificates of proficiency in wireless telegraphy may be so designated by a symbol in the regimental lists and official records of the War Office?

Two courses of instruction for officers will be held at the Army Signal School, Aldershot, prior to this year's manœuvres, at which instruction will be given in elementary wireless telegraphy. This instruction is confined to officers who are desirous of qualifying for appointment to the Army Signal Service. Further officers of units that employ wireless telegraphy receive instruction during the year in such units. It is not proposed to designate officers who have been trained in wireless telegraphy by a symbol as suggested, but a record of officers so trained is kept. Territorial officers are trained in their own units and by attachment to a corresponding signal unit of the Regular Forces. There are also three vacancies for Territorial Force officers at a course at the Signal School, commencing on 13th October, at which instruction will be given in advanced wireless telegraphy.

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will give the strength of the Territorial Army in officers, non-commissioned officers, and men, respectively, on 1st March, 1910, 1911, 1912, and 1913?

The figures for the nearest dates to those specified in the question for which we have statistics are as follows:—

asked the Secretary of State for War whether lieutenants of the Royal Garrison Artillery of six years' service who have qualified for promotion will receive, after the 1st January, 1914, the extra 2s. 6d. per day in addition to the ordinary pay of 6s. 10d. and 2s. armament pay; and, if not, what additional rates of pay will be given to officers of the Royal Garrison Artillery?

I am not yet in a position to add anything to the statement which I made on the introduction of Army Estimates.

asked the Secretary of State for War the exact number of Indian Mutiny veterans on the pension list in Scotland?

I regret that no inmation on this subject is available at the War Office.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that the council of the Pharmaceutical Society has not up to the present taken any steps to make by-laws under Section 4 (b) of the Poisons and Pharmacy Act, 1908, providing for the registration as pharmaceutical chemists or chemists and druggists under the Pharmacy Acts, 1852 and 1868, of, among others, certified assistants to apothecaries under the Apothecaries Act, 1815; and whether he will take any and, if any, what steps to induce the council to pass such by-laws without further loss of time?

I have nothing to add to the reply I gave to a similar question by the hon. Member for Salisbury on 6th February last, except to say that the matter is receiving the continuous and careful attention of the Privy Council Office.

asked the President of the Local Government Board if he can state the rateable value of the agricultural land which is subject to the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896; and also the total amount of the rates remitted under that Act?

The rateable value of land in England and Wales which is agricultural land as defined in the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896, is, according to the valuation lists (or poor rates) in force in April, 1912, £23,886,000. The total amount by which the rates on the occupiers of agricultural land have been reduced by the operation of the Act cannot be stated; but the sums paid to local authorities in England and Wales out of the annual Grant under the Act up to the 31st March 1913, have amounted to £21,246,000.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether, in considering the proposed Poor Law Institutions Order in so far as it will affect the nurses and the nursing in such institutions, he has received any representations from the Workhouse Nursing Association or from other societies or persons having special acquaintance with nursing arrangements in Poor Law institutions; and whether he is willing to consider any suggestion that they may make for rendering the provisions of the Order in this respect more effective before he finally approves it?

The Departmental Committee who are considering this matter have not yet made their Report with regard to the proposed Order. I have already brought under the notice of the Committee for their consideration the representations submitted to me by the Workhouse Nursing Association, and I understand that they will be glad to receive any further suggestions which may he made to them on the subject.

asked the President of the Local Government Board, (1) with reference to the Portsmouth scheme for training and indenturing pauper boys, whether the Local Government Board, before sanctioning the scheme, will take into account the fact that such State-regulated contract labour will compete injuriously with the labour of independent youths not under Poor Law control; and what precautions he proposes to take to prevent those indentured labourers being used as strike-breakers in trade disputes; (2) with reference to the Portsmouth scheme for indenturing paupers, whether there is any limit to the age up to which the guardians are or may be able to keep paupers in this form of unfree labour and to appropriate their wages for their keep; and, if not, whether the Board contemplate eventually the organisation of the whole of the Poor Law unemployed into a body of efficient hired artisans, living in compounds under the control of the guardians or other central State Department; (3) whether his attention has been called to a scheme of the Portsmouth guardians, in which it is proposed to obtain the consent of the Local Government Board to keeping pauper boys under the guardians' control until the age of eighteen, and, with the view of preventing them from drifting into blind alley employment, to apprentice them after school age to some useful trade in the town, keeping them meantime in a specially provided home and appropriating the wages they earn to the cost of their board and lodging in that home, but allowing them some fraction of their earnings as pocket money; and whether this scheme has yet come before the Board for approval; (4) with reference to the Portsmouth scheme of indentured pauper labour, whether his Department will fix what proportion of their wages the labourers are to receive as pocket money; and whether the pauper boys themselves are to be in any way consulted as to giving their consent to becoming workers on the arranged terms?

I have not yet received from the Portsmouth guardians any application for sanction to a scheme such as my hon. Friend suggests.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to an offer by Lord Henniker to sell land at Braisworth, Suffolk, to the district council for building purposes at purely agricultural prices; and whether he can say why the offer was rejected by the district council, having regard to the dearth of cottage accommodation for workmen in the locality?

A complaint has been matte to me that the rural district council of Hartismere are in default in regard to the exercise of their powers to provide houses for the working classes in Braisworth, and a local inquiry has recently been held into the complaint by one of my inspectors. I have not yet received the inspector's report, but my attention has been drawn to a newspaper report of the inquiry, in which a statement is attributed to the agent of Lord Henniker to the effect that, if the council wished for land on which to build cottages, Lord Henniker would be a willing seller at agricultural prices. I gather from the same newspaper report that the council have made investigations in regard to the housing needs of some thirteen of the parishes in their district, and that they contemplate building some houses in ten of those parishes. When I receive the inspector's report in regard to Braisworth the matter will receive my careful consideration. I am not aware of any offer of land made by Lord Henniker having been rejected by the council.

asked the President of the Board of Trade, as regards the imports classified in the Trade Returns as articles wholly or mainly manufactured, if he will say what is regarded as the general definition of articles wholly manufactured and what as the general definition of articles mainly manufactured; and if he can state in general terms what proportions and amounts of the imports during the year 1912 of articles wholly or mainly manufactured were articles wholly manufactured?

No exact definition has ever been attempted of articles wholly or mainly manufactured for the purposes of the Official Trade Returns. A complete list of the articles included in the group as a whole in 1911 will be found in Volume I. of the Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom for that year (Cd. 6216), and a corresponding list will be included in the issue for 1912, which is now in course of preparation. An attempt was made in Memorandum XII. of the Second Series of Memoranda on British and Foreign Trade and Industry (Cd. 2337) to sub-divide this group into three classes, namely: (a) Articles completely manufactured and ready for consumption; (b) articles manufactured, but requiring to pass through some process of adaptation or combination before entering into consumption; and (c) articles partly manufactured. The lists of articles included in each class will be found in the Memorandum in question. Sufficient details of the imports into the United Kingdom in 1912 are not yet available to enable a corresponding calculation to be applied thereto, but the imports into the United Kingdom of articles wholly or mainly manufactured in 1911 were divisible approximately, as follows:—