asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether the Board can see their way to give to medical men holding the position of surgeon and agent a distinctive rank, active or honorary, in view of the many duties they have to perform?

This question has been carefully considered, and it is not thought necessary to give these gentlemen, whose services are part time only, distinctive rank.

asked the First; Lord of the Admiralty how many officers and men, respectively, have been invalided from the Royal Navy and the Royal Naval Division since the War began; and what are the approved organisations, with their addresses, dealing with the problem of finding work for them?

To give the figures asked for in the first part of the hon. and gallant Member's question would involve expenditure of time and labour which cannot easily be spared. As regards the latter part of the question, I would invite attention to Parliamentary Paper (Cd. 7915) of 1915. At each naval shore establishment registers are kept of men invalided from the Navy who are candidates and are considered suitable for light employment on shore. Employment is also provided by various outside agencies, such as the Navy Employment Agency, to the funds of which the Admiralty continues to make a substantial Grant year by year, and the Incorporated Soldiers' and Sailors' Help Society We have also recently been in communication with the Board of Trade in regard to the matter, and I understand that arrangements have been made for putting the various Labour Exchanges in touch with men invalided from the Service with a view to securing appropriate employment for them.

asked the Under-Secretary for War whether, in the case of soldiers who are discharged as unfit for further service on account of their wounds, he will authorise the issue of a better class of plain clothes than the second-hand garments at present provided?

Soldiers discharged as unfit for further service are supplied with new suits of civilian clothes, and not second-hand clothing. If they are already in possession of civilian clothes, they receive a money allowance in lieu.

asked the Under-Secretary for War whether he will extend the furloughs at present granted to convalescent soldiers on discharge from hospital to a longer period than seven days before returning to the front, or at any rate will allow a discretionary extension in cases where it takes the men half the above-named time to travel to and from their homes; and whether he will consider the possibility of arranging that men who may possibly have been serving for nine or ten months in the trenches shall have a somewhat longer holiday on recovering from their wounds?

Leave is already being given to invalided soldiers in large numbers as freely as the exigencies of the service admit.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he can state approximately the number of men who have died in hospital as the result of abdominal wounds received in the western area of War; and what proportion such cases bear to the total number of men suffering from such wounds?

I am afraid this information could not be given without asking the medical authorities in France for a return, and they are already heavily burdened.

asked the Under-Secretary for War if he can give approximately the number of cases in which it has been necessary to amputate one or more limbs of men admitted to hospitals here or in France?

I understand that the Chelsea Commissioners have up to date received reports of 782 cases.

asked the Under-Secretary for War whether the service jacket is the only order of dress in which officers are required to wear their badges of rank prominently displayed, together with one or more lines of braid on the cuff; whether officers of the staff and of certain corps are excepted from this regulation; and whether the advisability of allowing all officers to resume the custom of wearing these badges on the shoulder straps, as in all other uniforms, has been or will be considered?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative; to the second, that general officers and colonels holding staff appointments wear the badges of rank on the shoulder strap, not on the sleeve. The question of wearing badges of rank on the shoulder has been considered.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether any decision has been arrived at with regard to an increase of pay for quartermasters, and whether it is intended to make them the same allowance for lodging and servant as they received during the South African war?

An increase of Is. per diem has been approved, and was announced on the 5th May last. As regards lodging and servant allowances, quartermasters are already in receipt of the same allowances as during the South African war.

asked the Under-Secretary for War whether, while service in the Army, Militia, Special Reserve, Yeomanry, or Territorial Force counts for proficiency pay, service in the Navy or in the old Volunteer Force cannot be counted for that purpose; whether a rule which discriminates against men who have served their country in those forces and many of whom are extremely efficient has given rise in many quarters to a sense of injustice; and whether the rule can be now reconsidered?

As I informed the hon. Member for South-West Manchester on the 30th June, in reply to a similar question, the matter is being further considered, but my right hon. and learned Friend must not take this as holding out any great hope of a change.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will have inquiries made into the case of Mrs. Berry, of No. 21, Byron Street, Cheapside, Burnley, mother of Private H. Berry, No. 19787, 15th Battalion Cheshire Regiment, who enlisted last December, and is believed to have made an allotment to her of 6d. a day from that date, but no money has ever been received; whether he is aware that the attention of the War Office was drawn to this case on the 8th June, and a reply was sent that the necessary action was being taken, but that at present nothing further appears to have been done, with the result that Mrs. Berry is suffering great poverty; and whether he will ascertain what is the reason for the delay?

It has been ascertained that this soldier is not prepared to make an allotment to his mother.

asked the Secretary for India whether, in the case of colonels of the Indian Army who now command British regiments, a large difference of pay exists between those who joined before and those who joined after 1st July, 1881; and, if so, whether he will bring both classes up to the higher standard?

An officer who is on the retired list of the Indian Army and who is given the command of a British battalion by the War Office continues to receive his pension in full, and also receives the pay of the appointment which he holds in the British Army. The some rule applies to a retired officer of the British Army if re-employed. An officer who is on the unemployed list of the Indian Army and who is employed to command a British battalion receives the pay of the appointment which he holds in the British Army, and, as an act of grace, is also granted a portion of the pay drawn by him as an unemployed officer. In this respect he is more favourably treated than is an officer of the British Army, who, if re-employed, receives only the pay of his appointment. In either case the liability to serve exists. There is, however, a class of unemployed officers in the Indian Army (limited to those who joined the Indian Army before 1st July, 1881) who, although not technically on the retired list, are not under any liability for further service, and are in many respects treated as retired officers. Such officers belong to what is called the "Unemployed Supernumerary List." The Secretary of State in Council decided that their position was so closely analogous to that of retired officers that he was justified in allowing them the full rate of their unemployed pay in addition to the pay of their British appointment in cases where such officers had been re-employed by the War Office. Both retirements and transfers to the Unemployed Supernumerary List were suspended on the outbreak of the War. All unemployed officers of the Indian Army who were not on the Unemployed Supernumerary List at that time remain liable to be called upon for service. For this reason they receive a portion only, and not the whole, of their unemployed pay when employed with a British battalion, irrespective of whether they joined the Indian Army on or after 1st July, 1881. I regret that I am unable to adopt the suggestion made by my hon. Friend. To give an Indian Army officer on the unemployed list who is liable to be called upon for further service his full unemployed pay in addition to the pay of the appointment he is holding in the British Army would place him in an unduly favourable position when compared, on the one hand, with a re-employed British Service officer, and, on the other hand, with an Indian Army officer who has been reemployed in an Indian appointment.

asked the Postmaster-General if he will relax the rule with regard to lost registered letters, especially in the case of Mrs. Weeden, of 68, Bermondsey Street, S.E., who had a registered letter posted to her from her husband serving with the Colours in France, which letter never reached her, although it contained a remittance of £51?

As the hon. Member has already been informed, the registered letter in question was included in a mail which was lost in course of transit from a field post office to a base post office in France. The loss was due to military exigencies and not to any cause within the control of the Post Office; and I am unable to make any exception to the regulation that no compensation can be paid for loss in such circumstances.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the fact that gas companies are obtaining cheaper coal owing to State intervention, he will take steps by legislation or otherwise with a view to bringing about a corresponding reduction in the price of gas coke, toluol, and other residual products, and also in the price of gas to their consumers?

Most gas companies work under sliding scales which give them a direct interest in keeping the price of gas as low as possible, and I do not think any legisation in the direction suggested by my hon. Friend is necessary.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the present suspension of excursion and cheap fare tickets on all railways is an impediment in the way of poor town children's holidays in the country; whether, in view of the importance to health of the children of such holidays, he will arrange conditions which would not interfere with the direct or indirect requirements of the military authorities to permit the issue of such cheap tickets; and whether, in that case, some public announcement could be made?

In the case of poor town children under 14 years of age the usual cheap facilities will be given to the Children's Country Holiday Fund and other similar organisations. I can assure the hon. Member that I am as anxious as he is that cheap facilities for children's holidays should be interfered with as little as possible.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will furnish the names of approved societies formed in Ireland under the National Insurance Act, stating the total receipts of each from all sources; the total payments of each to insured persons; and the total working expenses of each?

The names of approved societies operating in Ireland are contained in the official list of Approved Societies published by the Stationery Office. The particulars asked for in the remainder of the question could not be obtained except "by the preparation of a special return involving considerable labour, which would not otherwise be required, by the staff both of the societies and the Commissioners.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury the number of Royal Commissions now in existence, with the name of each, the number of its paid staff, the amount of expenditure from public money which has in the case of each Royal Commission been incurred up to 31st March last, or to any later date, if the information is available?

The number of Royal Commissions now in existence is twelve. The following table gives the information desired:—

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he will state the present rate of pay of Irish prison warders; how long is it since any increase of pay was made in this office; whether he is aware that dissatisfction exists among the service in Ireland by reason of the fact that the scale of pay in Ireland is very much below the scale for similar duties in England and Scotland; what steps he proposes to take, either by way of inquiry or the receiving of a deputation, to urge the redress of this grievance; and when definite action in the direction of placing Irish prison warders on the same plan of equality as regards pay and pension will be taken by his Department?

The present rate of pay of Irish prison warders is set out at pages 392–94 of the Parliamentary Estimates for Civil Services for the current financial year, the last general increase dating from 1908. I am aware that representations have been made with a view to the further increase of this rate to the level of that obtaining in the English and Scotch services, but as I have already pointed out various differences in conditions account for differences in pay between warders in these and in the Irish prison services. I may say at the same time that the General Prisons Board have put forward a scheme of reorganisation which includes proposals for an increase in the scale of pay. These proposals have been placed before the Treasury, who feel, however, that they are debarred from agreeing to any increased charge in respect of wages at the present juncture unless it is accompanied by counter balancing economies in the administrations of the prisons service. I am in consultation with the Prisons Board on this point, but it has not so far been found possible to frame any scheme for permanent economies which does not involve large capital expenditure. In these circumstances and in view of the fact that the representations of the prison officers are on record, I do not see that any useful purpose would be served by my receiving a deputation on the subject.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture since what year has the journal of the Board been instituted; has the price charged for it always been 4d. per issue; is he aware that dissatisfaction exists as to the price when compared with the price of other farming papers; and can he see his way to reduce the figure at which it is sold?

The "Journal of the-Board of Agriculture" was first issued in September, 1894, and was published quarterly until December, 1897, as a Stationery Office publication, price 6d., by post 9d. From March, 1898, until March, 1904, it was published by Laughton and Company, quarterly at Is., postage extra. From April, 1904, to March, 1907, it was published by the same firm monthly at 4d.r by post 6d. From April, 1907, onwards it has been published by the Board monthly at 4d., post free. The hon. Member will see, therefore, that since 1898, at any rate, the price has been considerably reduced, while, on the other hand, I may say that I the journal itself has been greatly enlarged and improved. The officers of the Board are not aware of dissatisfaction at the present price.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether large quantities of Dutch nails have been shipped to this country from Holland during recent months; whether there are any wire-drawing works in Holland; whether the wire for the making of the nails comes from Germany; and, if so, whether this importation will be stopped?

The following is a statement showing the quantities of wire nails imported into the United Kingdom which were consigned from the Netherlands in the periods specified:—