asked the hon. Member for St. George's-in-the-East, as representing the Insurance Commissioners, if he is aware that a man named Wilkinson, twenty-eight years of age, who, up to 31st January last, was a member of the West Riding police force, and is now a tram driver at Bolton, has been informed, by the secretary of the approved society that he desires to join, that he will have to pay a capital sum of £4 8s. if he wishes to have the full monetary benefit provided by the Act; and whether he will give the details as to how this amount is made up?

The capital sum payable under Section 9 (4) of the National Insurance Act, 1911, to secure full benefits for a man entering insurance for the first time after 12th October last, is £4 8s. at age twenty-nine. This amount represents, approximately, the liability incurred by the society in accepting members of this age who do not bring with them any reserve value.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of the difficulties which have arisen in distributing the money, now in the hands of the London committee in respect of insured persons who have not been allocated to a doctor, amongst the doctors on the panel, in accordance with the understanding clearly laid down, he is prepared to introduce a single-Clause Bill to remedy this injustice?

I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to him on the 10th March, to which I have at present nothing to add.

asked the Prime Minister whether any military stores, arms, or ammunition are kept at the headquarters of the 4th and 5th battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles at Newtownards and Down-patrick, respectively, and at the headquarters of the 4th battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers at Cavan?

My information is that no arms or ammunition are kept at these headquarters. Some clothing, however, is stored at them.

asked the Prime Minister what orders were sent from the War Office by Sir A. Paget or by any of the authorities at the War Office to General Friend or to the military authorities at Belfast, Mullingar, or other stations in Ireland, on the 18th March; and if he will publish those orders?

asked the Prime Minister (1) whether the two telegrams from Sir A. Paget to General Friend, sent at 5.30 and 10 p.m. on 19th March, and given in the Prime Minister's written answer to the hon. Member for South Birmingham on 16th April, were the only orders sent by Sir A. Paget or any of the authorities at the War Office to the military authorities at various stations in Ireland on 19th March; if not, whether he will publish the other orders, telegraphic or written; (2) whether any telegrams or letters were sent from the War Office to General Paget on 20th and 21st March, relative to the movement of troops in Ireland, or to the sending of reinforcements from Great Britain; if he will publish such letters or telegrams; (3) whether any telegrams or letters relative to the War Office instructions of 14th March were sent to General Paget from the War Office on the 14th, 15th, 16th, or 17th of March; if he will publish such letters or telegrams; and (4) whether a telegram was sent to General Paget on 17th March, ordering him to come over to London; and if he will publish such telegram?

These documents will be included in the revised edition of the White Paper.

asked the Prime Minister whether any detachment of Royal Engineers was sent to Holywood in the course of the recent movements; if such detachment is still at Holywood; and, if not, at what date was it moved and to what station?

I am informed that one section of a signal company from Carlow and one section of a field company Royal Engineers from Curragh (or a total of two officers and fifty men) were sent to Holywood, on 21st March, for technical work, and returned to their permanent stations on completion of this duty on 8th April.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty what were the quantities of coal and oil supplied to the Fleet and the cost of the same, separately, for the years 1906–7, 1911–12, and 1913–14?

I am advised that it would not be in the public interest to furnish the particulars asked for.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the amount of money spent in the parish of Hoo in the extension of the Deangate (Chattenden) powder magazines and cartridge-filling factories between the 1st January, 1909, and the 31st December, 1913?

The amount was £18,755.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether any money award has been made to the heirs or dependants of Bernard Collery, who was attached to the British Yeomanry during the late South African War and perished in an engagement with the Boer forces; and, if so, what the amount was, and to whom it was paid?

From the information given this man cannot be traced as having served in the Army or in connection with the South African War. If further particulars can be furnished I will have further-inquiry made.

asked the Postmaster-General whether the result of the application to postmen of the units-of-work system of classification, under the Report of the Hobhouse Committee, was to reduce the maximum wage of postmen at Burnley by 1s. a week, while the maximum of the sorting clerks and telegraphists, at the same office, was increased, under the same Report, by 4s.; whether the effect of the Report of the Holt Committee would be merely to restore to postmen the 1s. taken off in 1908, while increasing the maximum wage of sorting clerks and telegraphists by a further sum of 2s.; whether the maximum wage of postmen in Burnley would thus remain the same as it was in 1897, although wages in the staple trade of the town have advanced during this period by 15 per cent. and in other trades by amounts varying from 12½ to 20 per cent.; whether he is aware that the units-of-work system of classification causes discontent on the ground that the units of work do not represent fairly the actual work performed by postmen; and whether he will consider the adoption of a different system of calculating the wages of postmen or, in the alternative, arrange that a higher scale of wages should be attached to each class?

The existing system of classifying provincial offices for scales of pay of the outdoor force does not rest on units of work alone, as the cost of living is also taken into account. The recent Select Committee on Post Office Servants, in paragraph 148 of their Report, made certain suggestions for modifying the existing system, and their recommendations in the matter are at present under consideration. There is no intention of adopting a method of classification based exclusively on the volume of work. The case of Burnley will be considered in connection with the general review of outdoor classification, but, as the Select Committee contemplated, it may be some considerable time before all the details of a revised scheme can be settled. I cannot undertake to deal exceptionally with individual cases in the meantime. The particulars quoted of the changes under the Holt Committee's recommendation in the maximum wages of postmen and sorting clerks and telegraphists at Burnley are correct.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that Miss E. E. Shepherd, postal clerk at Berkeley, Gloucestershire, has not yet been refunded the amount of salary due to her for the period during which she was under suspension on the charge that she had been tampering with the letters at the Post Office of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire; whether he is aware that cases of tampering with letters have taken place since this postal clerk was suspended, and if he is further aware that she has twenty-two years' service, and that a petition signed by all the leading men in Wotton-under-Edge, including three justices of the peace, five clergymen and ministers, six solicitors, the bank manager, and all the leading tradesmen of the town, many of whom have known Miss Shepherd for many years, was presented asking for an open inquiry; and whether, in view of the fact that the Post Office reinstated this postal clerk without giving a proper open inquiry as requested by the petition, he will now either cause such inquiry to be held or issue orders that this official shall be given back pay for the period during which she was under suspension, and that, in addition, the disabilities under which she is now placed with reference to the annual increment due after her long period of service shall be removed?

I am acquainted with the circumstances of the case to which the hon. Members refers, but I am not aware that cases of tampering with letters in the post have occurred at Wotton-under-Edge since Miss Shepherd's suspension. No complaint on the subject is recollected. When my predecessor decided to reinstate Miss Shepherd in the service he made it clear that he did so as an act of grace, and not because he had any doubt as to the justice of his previous decision. He consequently declined to authorise any payment to her for the period during which she was out of the service. As regards the suggestion that an open inquiry into the case should be granted, I would refer the hon. Member to my predecessor's reply to a question in this House on the 31st July last to the effect that nothing would be gained by a public inquiry. I see no ground for taking a different view.

asked the Postmaster-General which classes of female Post Office employés will benefit by the increase of salaries recently decided on; what is estimated to be the increase of ultimate annual cost so far as these female employés are concerned; how many female employés are in these classes; and what is the total number of female Post Office employés?

The female classes which benefit in respect of pay under the Parliamentary Committee Revision are telephonists, telephone learners, telegraph learners, and charwomen in London. The numbers on these classes are 11,516, 200, 910, and 578, respectively. The ultimate additional annual cost of alterations in pay, hours of duty, etc., so far as these classes are concerned, is estimated at £37,910. There is also an additional cost of £13,280 in respect of changed hours of duty for provincial female supervising officers and sorting clerks and telegraphists. In addition to the staff shown above, sub-postmistresses, female care-taker-operators, auxiliary postwomen and allowance deliverers benefit in pay under the Revision, but these officers belong to classes comprising both male and female employés, and the cost for the females cannot be stated separately. Female clerical classes and women sorters have also been excluded from the statement, as their pay and conditions of service are still under consideration. Further, the female staff participates in the general concessions respecting overtime, etc., which have resulted from the Parliamentary Commit- tee's Report. The total number of women and girls employed on Post Office work is approximately 59,000, but of this total about 18,400 are not paid directly by the Post Office.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that many of the men rejected under the engineering revision of 1911 are recognised by their colleagues and controlling officers in the engineering branch as engineers who are quite as efficient as many of those who have been promoted; whether he will explain why men who are acknowledged by the Postmaster-General himself to be suitable for promotion should be penalised by being repeatedly passed over by officers junior to them in age and experience to the detriment of their prospects in the service; whether he will arrange that no more appointments to the class of assistant engineers shall be made from any other source than that of the redundant officers until all whom the engineer-in-chief certifies as suitable are disposed of; and whether he will undertake that when these officers are promoted they shall be restored to the positions in regard to seniority which they would have occupied had they not been passed over?

No undertaking can be given that all future vacancies on the class of assistant engineers will be allotted to redundant second-class engineers, who were rejected in 1911 because they were not so well qualified as those who were promoted, but the claim of these rejected officers will continue to be considered as suitable vacancies arise. Any second-class engineer who may be selected for promotion must take his place at the foot of the class at the time of his promotion.