asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether a doctor joining the Territorial Forces, although he may be of superior rank, gets a much lower rate of pay than a doctor who joins Kitchener's Army; and, if so, what is the reason for this inequality?

It is true that certain civilian medical practitioners commissioned as temporary lieutenants, R.A.M.C., received a consolidated rate of pay which is slightly higher than the amount of pay and allowances received by a captain of the Regular or Territorial Force, R.A.M.C. It is sometimes necessary to give higher rates to those commissioned on emergency.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the present position of the German colliery at Harworth, in the county of Nottingham; whether he is aware that 28,000 acres of coal bearing land in South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire has been leased to the Northern Union Mining Company, Limited, a company mainly owned and controlled by German capitalists; whether he is aware that this company has petitioned Parliament against a railway Bill, promoted in the present Session, to construct a railway from Worksop to Bawtry; whether it is the intention of the Government that these leases should continue to be held by aliens; and whether the Government propose to take any steps to prevent such a company petitioning against a Bill promoted in the British Parliament?

The sinking operations preparatory to the working of this colliery, which were in progress before the outbreak of war, have been suspended, and it is now lying idle in the charge of a few workmen as caretakers. I believe that it is the case that most of the capital of the company is owned by Germans, but the company is registered in this country under the Companies Act and is, I understand, entitled under Standing Orders of this House to petition against a private Bill. I am informed that the petition it has presented against the Worksop and Bawtry Bill is already under the consideration of a Committee.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will state the names of the individuals or firms who constitute or conduct the operations of the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply and their respective occupations or businesses prior to their appointment to the Commission and what remuneration, if any, they respectively receive either directly or indirectly for their services; whether he will state who appointed the members of the Commission and the date of the inception and formation of the Commission, and what position Mr. J. J. Runge holds under the Commission; and whether he will state the total quantity of sugar purchased by the Commission from its inception until 31st March last and the respective ports at which the sugar was shipped during that period, giving the shipments monthly from each port, and the total quantity of sugar which arrived in British ports from all sources from 1st September, 1914 to 31st March, 1915, and the respective quantities each month during the said period which arrived at the ports of London, Liverpool, Greenock, Glasgow, Avonmouth, Leith, Hull, Newcastle, Cardiff, and Manchester, respectively, and the greatest quantity which arrived in any one week at London, Liverpool, and Greenock during the said period?

As regards the constitution of the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply, I would refer the hon. Member to the notice in the "London Gazette" of 11th September, 1914, in which publication was made of the appointment of the Commission. No member of the Commission receives any remuneration. Mr. J. J. Runge is employed by the Commission in the capacity of manager. The whole of the staff of the Commission has been engaged in the usual way, on salaries approved by the Treasury. The Commission will in due course make a full Report of its proceedings. It would be quite impossible for the Commission, with the staff at its disposal, to prepare elaborate interim returns such as the hon. Member asks for, without serious interruption and prejudice to the business which it has to conduct.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that congestion still exists in the port of Liverpool; will he say how many vessels were waiting for berths on 14th April; whether he can state the greatest number of steamers in the port of Liverpool with sugar on board at any one time during the period 1st September, 1914, to 31st March, 1915, and the date of the same; whether he is aware that the steamer "Nurtureton" arrived in Liverpool with a cargo of sugar on 8th January and was not discharged until 9th March; whether demurrage has been paid or will be paid by the consignees or the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply to the owners of the "Nurtureton" for the delay this vessel experienced in the discharge of her cargo of sugar; whether demurrage has in any-other case been, or is to be, paid to owners of steamers for delay experienced in discharge; whether he is aware that the warehouses in the ports of London, Greenock, and Liverpool have for some time past been congested with sugar, thereby causing great delay to steamers ordered to these ports, although the ports of Glasgow and Manchester, as well as other deep-water ports, are free from congestion; and whether he will represent to the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply the advisability of ordering vessels with sugar cargoes to Glasgow, Manchester, or other deep-water ports, where they will obtain more speedy discharge than at the ports of Liverpool, London, or Greenock, and thereby help to relieve congestion at these ports?

The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply to this question. As the hon. Member is probably aware the whole subject of the congestion in the ports of the United Kingdom has been investigated by the Advisory Committee which my right hon. Friend appointed early in February, under the chairmanship of Lord Inchcape. As far as the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply is concerned in the matter, it can only be said that since the beginning of the year the Commission has been making every endeavour to avoid adding to the congestion in London and Liverpool any further than the circumstances render inevitable.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether it has been brought to his knowledge that quantities of farm produce, especially potatoes, are lying deteriorating in the Ramsey (Huntingdonshire) district owing to the scarcity of the necessary railway trucks to convey them to the wholesale markets from the Great Eastern and Great Northern joint railway stations; can he hold out any hope that extra facilities for the conveyance of agricultural produce by rail will be available in the near future, seeing that, owing to the scarcity of supplies reaching the various markets, it is unnecessarily increasing the cost of living to the poor; and whether he proposes, to take any steps whereby this necessary article of food may be conveyed from the agricultural areas to the distributing wholesale markets, seeing that deterioration is not only causing loss to the agriculturists as well as the merchants' staffs remaining idle, but the food supply of the nation is being held up for the want of the necessary railway facilities?

The hon. Member forwarded me a complaint on this subject, and I have asked the railway companies concerned for their observations. I will communicate with him as soon as I receive their replies.