asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state separately the amount of sick and maternity benefit paid for the year ending 13th July, 1913, to insured persons, by the following approved societies: The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and the Boilermakers' Society; the amount of money paid to each of these societies by the Insurance Commissioners; and the amount of money standing to the credit of these societies?

As regards the second part of the question the amounts issued to the societies named for payment of sickness and maternity benefit and expenses of administration are £8,997, £46,241, and £21,043, respectively. The other information asked for is not available pending the audit of expenditure and the crediting of reserve values.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he can give the number of motor cars registered in each province of Ireland, and also in the counties of Down, Armagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Londonderry?

According to the information supplied by the local authorities concerned, the number of motor cars, including motor cycles, registered in each of the provinces in Ireland, and also in the counties referred to, is as follows:—

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether any places of worship or other buildings have been broken into recently in the town of Ballyjamesduff, in county Cavan; and will he state the nature of these offences and the apparent object and result in each case?

In addition to the outrage at the Protestant Church at Ballyjamesduff, on the 22nd March, to which I referred in reply to the question of the hon. Member for the St. Augustine's Division on the 30th ultimo, the police authorities inform me that the Roman Catholic Church at Ballyjamesduff was broken into and the poor-boxes rifled on three occasions within the past eighteen months.

asked how many full-time and how many part-time medical officers of health are employed by local authorities in Ireland; how many of the former receive a salary of £500 or over; and how many receive less than £500?

At the present date there are 903 medical officers of health, including medical superintendent officers of health and consulting sanitary officers, employed by local authorities in Ireland. Of these only two are full-time officers, and they are paid salaries of £500 a year or over.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether the Committee appointed to inquire into the conditions of service of the accountant officers of His Majesty's Navy has yet reported; and whether he will state when the Report will be published?

The Report of the Committee in question has been received and is now under consideration. I cannot yet state whether the Report will be published.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, in view of the fact that the medical authorities strongly condemn the practice of soldiers having to eat their meals in the same tents that they live and sleep in, he will consider the advisability of issuing Regulations allowing the issue of dining tents to units placed under canvas for periods shorter than eight weeks, in view of the fact that under present conditions units have to hire them at their own expense in order to comply with the recommendations of the medical authorities?

The considerations mentioned have received full consideration, but the Army Council do not see their way to extend the issue of dining tents beyond the present limits.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that hardship is inflicted on the permanent staff of Territorial Infantry regiments under the new Regulations of two-year appointments, owing to the difficulty of obtaining housing accommodation and the expense of procuring furniture; and whether he will consider the advisability of providing permanent furnished quarters on a similar scale to married quarters in barracks?

The difficulties referred to are now engaging the attention of the Army Council.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Depart- ment whether his attention has been called to the inconvenience under the Shops Act of holding half-holiday exemptions on fixed days on special occasions; and whether he would consent to giving a limited option to the employer on the lines of the Factory Act, by giving a few days' notice of the intention to work after prescribed hours, to change the days without curtailing the number of half-holidays?

I understand that the hon. Member has in mind the case of large shops at stock-taking times. I may point out that under the Act it is already open to the shopkeeper to alter the day of the assistants' half-holiday in any particular week to some other day in the same week by notice affixed in the shop not later than the previous Saturday, and, if he so desire, to fix different days for different assistants. If, however, the suggestion is that the shopkeeper should have the option of giving a half-holiday in some other week in lieu of the half-holiday in stock-taking week, that would require an amendment of the Act, and no representations, so far as I am aware, have been made to the Home Office in favour of such an amendment.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will say whether there are any prisoners in Holloway Gaol at the present time who recently have been or are now being forcibly fed?

There are two such prisoners.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India how many good service pensions £100 a year have been conferred on retired officers of the Indian Medical Service, as rewards for distinguished or meritorious services during the last five years; and whether he will state the names of the recipients of such pensions and the nature of the special services in respect of which they were awarded?

No good service pensions of £100 a year have been conferred on retired officers of the Indian Medical Service during the last five years.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India if the protection to traders in India arising from the right of a judgment creditor to apply for notice to issue to the judgment debtor to show cause why he should not be committed to prison, which commitment amounts to an act of insolvency, applies in the case of all judgment debtors, or is any part of the civil or military community exempted, either by implication from various provisions in the Procedure Code, or by the practice of the Courts in the exercise of their discretion; and, in the case of such exempted persons, if any, will he say in what respect their creditors have a remedy as effective as the bankruptcy procedure of this country, and not dissimilar from it?

No class of the community, other than women, is exempted by the Indian Civil Procedure Code from arrest or civil detention for non-payment of a judgment debt. The Court has discretion to disallow an application for such arrest or detention only where the judgment debtor from poverty or other sufficient cause is unable to pay the debt. A creditor would not, in respect of either of those classes of debtor, appear to be better off under the bankruptcy procedure of this country.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what are the penalties involved in the event of errors in Customs declarations exceeding the 3 per cent. margin fixed by the Budget Bill adopted by the French Chamber of Deputies on the 23rd March last?

The question is complicated. I will send my hon. Friend the full facts, as soon as I have been able to ascertain them correctly.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he has recently sanctioned in the Manchester telephone exchange the reduction in the pay of girl probationers to 5s. per week of thirty-six hours; whether these probationers are performing certain junior clerical duties formerly allocated to junior telephonists on a minimum wage of 10s. per week; and whether, under the recommendation of the Hobhouse Committee, any probationer can be employed in a provincial town for less than 6s. per week?

There has been no reduction in pay of girl probationers. The employment in the Manchester trunk telephone exchange of five girl probationers was only recently authorised. These probationers, who have the prospect of becoming telephonists, are paid on a scale of 5s., rising by annual incre- ments of 1s. to 8s. a week. They are employed in collecting and distributing telephone tickets and certain other simple work, which would otherwise be performed by junior telephonists. The girl probationer class was authorised in 1911, subsequently to the Report of the Parliamentary Committee of 1907.