asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has had his attention drawn to the special hardship which the new taxation on films will fall on a business which provides films for the Channel Islands cinema theatres; and whether it is intended to charge the full duty on films being returned to England from the Channel Islands after use there for three or six days only?

British films and foreign films which have paid the Import Duty will be allowed to be sent for short periods to the Channel Islands under bond, and will be exempted from payment of duty on reimportation.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the aggregate amount which Income Tax is estimated to produce on pay of officers in the Army under the Finance (No. 3) Bill and prior to the passing of the Resolutions on which that Bill is founded; and what would be the loss to the Exchequer if the pay of officers in the Army were relieved from liability to Income Tax?

It is roughly estimated that, at the rates imposed by the Finance (No. 3) Bill, Income Tax on the pay of naval and military officers will amount for 1915–16 to about £1,000,000 and for 1916–17 to about £1,200,000. At the rates in force prior to the passing of the Resolutions the corresponding figure would be about £750,000. The exemption of the pay and its exclusion from the computation of the officers' total income would, at a rough estimate, perhaps cost the Exchequer £1,250,000 for 1915–16 and £1,500,000 for 1916–17.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether, under Section 27 of the Finance (No. 3) Bill, it is intended that bankers shall deduct Income Tax from the interest payable on all deposits; whether he is aware that in many rural districts 80 per cent. of the depositors are exempt from the payment of Income Tax; and whether some method will be adopted whereby depositors who are exempt shall be relieved of the necessity to reclaim; also (2) whether, under Section 27 of the Finance (No. 3) Bill, it is intended to deduct Income Tax from interest payable on deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank?

As I have already indicated, it is not proposed to proceed with Clause 27 in its present form, and the modification of its terms is now being considered.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether members of the temporary staff of the Land Valuation Department who were refused permission to join the Army on the ground that their services could not be spared and whose services are now being dispensed with will, on now joining the Army, be put by the Department in the same position as to future reinstatement as if permission had been granted?

The members of the Valuation Staff are necessarily related to the volume of the work that staff is called upon to perform. The work may be insufficient to justify the re-engagement after the War of temporary officers who now join the Army.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he will state the total casualties in the Navy which have resulted from operations in the Mediterranean since the outbreak of the War?

Exclusive of the Royal Naval Division, the casualties for which were included in the figures given in the reply made by my right hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for War on the 14th instant, the figures up to the 20th instant are as follows:— Officers. Men. Killed … … 54 859 Wounded … … 56 524 Missing … … 9 80

asked the Under-Secretary for War whether at the present time a commanding officer of a Territorial unit has, under Section 28 (1) of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, 1907, the power of dismissal as a punishment; whether any sanction or consent of any kind on the part of any other person or body is needed to render such dismissal effective and binding; and whether there is any power vested in any person or body (other than Parliament), and, if so, in whom, to alter, restrict, or repeal such power?

My hon. Friend is, I think, as well able to interpret the enactment he quotes as I am. I am not aware of any power to restrict the effect of the Section in question. The exercise, however, of these powers at the present time is not in the opinion of the Army Council desirable, and of this I think those more particularly concerned are fully aware.

asked the Under-Secretary for War (1) whether he will state the actual duties expected to be performed by Messrs. Knowles and Wells in return for the seven and a half guineas a day which is paid them; will he define in what exact particulars the duties of these two persons are in excess of those performed by the City of London meat inspectors on Smithfield Market and the food inspectors of the ports of London and Liverpool; whether the meat inspectors' hours are much longer than either Messrs. Knowles or Wells; and whether their duties commence at five o'clock in the morning while those of Messrs. Knowles and Wells do not start until eight or nine; also (2) whether the duties performed by Messrs. Perfect and Company, apart from inspection, are less than those usually performed by cold storage companies for firms storing goods with them; whether the work of receiving and storing the goods and dispatching the same to the troops is so simple in character that Messrs. Perfect leave it to be superintended by persons who before the outbreak of the War were paid 30s. to £2 a week in Smithfield Market; whether the bookkeeping is actually performed by junior clerks at small wages; and whether, in view of the appeal to the working classes to retrench expenditure, he will consider the advisability of retrenching the outlays made to this firm?

I would refer the hon. Member to the answers which I gave him on this subject on the 23rd September and 8th June last, to which I have nothing to add.

likewise asked the Under-Secretary for War what qualifications are possessed by the special inspectors appointed under the quartermaster-general to inspect and report on Army food supplies; whether in the matter of meat they have had any special training as practical butchers; whether they hold the certificate of the Sanitary Inspectors Examination Board; what is their remuneration; and how many of them are employed?

The duties of the inspectors referred to are not confined to inspection of Army food supplies but comprise the quartermaster-general services generally, such as inspection of clothing, equipment, quartering, disposal of refuse, supervision of the Army Schools of Cookery, improvement of messing arrangements and avoidance of waste, etc. They hold schools of instruction for officers and give lectures. For these multifarious duties they possess the necessary qualifications of business ability, energy, tact, and common sense, with some military experience. They have had no special training as practical butchers, etc., nor is this considered necessary or desirable in their case, as such services are performed by the local health officer. The number employed is 13, and includes 10 inspectors graded as deputy assistant quartermaster-generals at £550, and three assistants graded as staff captains at £400.

asked the Secretary for India whether he will state the approximate value of the gifts in money, kind, and in services rendered which the British Government has received since the beginning of the War from Native ruling princes in India?

I regret that I am unable to give the information for which the hon. Member asks; but if he will refer to the Papers which have been placed in the Library, and which I mentioned in my statement yesterday, he will find, the offers of the Chiefs given in detail. It appears from these Papers that the cash gifts amounted to approximately £1,000,000 for the purposes of the War, and £300,000 for charitable purposes.

asked the Secretary for India whether Miss A. E. Dawson, formerly editor of the "Daily Post," of Bangalore, was forbidden to edit, print, and publish that newspaper by the Government of Mysore; whether that order was made because she published an article suggesting that Germans ought not to be employed by the Mysore Government while the British Empire was at war with Germany; and, if so, whether he will take steps to remedy the injustice of depriving this lady of her livelihood?

I am at present without information on the subject, but I have addressed an inquiry to the Government of India.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he will say how many women have registered up to date for war work; what are the classes of industrial or other forms of national service they have undertaken to do if called upon; can he now inform the House how many of the 100,000 women who were willing to place their services at the disposal of the Government are now so employed; will the Government absorb a larger percentage of women in suitable occupations; will he state whether he has received any complaints in regard to the few women who registered being found employment; and, if so, will he state the reason?

My right hon. Friend has asked me to reply to this question. The total number of women on the War Service Register on 8th October (exclusive of those whose offers of service were ineffective for various reasons) was 58,735, distributed as follows under the trades in which they desired to give their services:— Trade. No. Engineering … … 15,412 Dress … … 3,664 Agriculture … … 5,632 Chemicals … … 767 Food … … 476 Domestic … … 2,096 Conveyance … … 4,336 Professional … … 2,724 Commercial … … 7,471 Shop Assistants … … 2,386 All others … … 13,771

The number who had been placed in employment up to 8th October from the War Service Register was 6,175. This number is, of course, exclusive of those, amounting to about 176,000 placed in employment from the ordinary registers of the Labour Exchanges during the same period, and the latter total no doubt includes a number of women who had also placed their names on the War Service Register. The number which may ultimately be absorbed from the War Service Register will depend on the extent to which the demand can be met from the ordinary register, and in this connection I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for North Salford on 10th June. If a woman is in need of employment as distinct from desiring to offer her services, her proper course is to register her name on the ordinary register of the Exchange; and where complaints have been made as to the com-comparatively small percentage of women placed from the War Service Register, they have usually been due to misapprehension on this point.

asked the President of the Board of Trade why railway tickets supplied to soldiers returning home invalided or on furlough are issued for certain lines respectively, and are not so made out that the journey may be taken upon any line which connects the point of departure with the destination; whether he is aware that recently a soldier, who had been wounded, was handed a ticket made out over the Midland Railway, but was advised at St. Pancras Station to travel by the 2.20 p.m. train from King's Cross Station, as no Midland train was to leave for Scotland earlier than 9.30 p.m.; that travel on the Great Northern line was refused to him, however; and that other cases of the kind have occurred; and will he consider methods whereby such delay and anxiety to soldiers recently wounded, or with but brief furloughs, can be avoided?

I have asked for the observations of the Railway Executive Committee upon my hon. Friend's question, and I will communicate with him on receipt of their reply.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether he has approached the Masters of Foxhounds Association with regard to the increasing number of foxes and their increasing destruction of valuable food; whether be has urged the adoption of measures for the protection of farmers and poultry-keepers against the depredations of foxes; and what steps he intends to take to see that any recommendations made are carried into effect?

As I informed the hon. Member, in reply to the similar question he addressed to me on the 16th September, the Board made strong representations to the Masters of Foxhounds Associations on the subject of the depredations by foxes in various parts of the country. I am now glad to be able to inform the hon. Member that a reply has been received from the association, dated the 15th instant, which shows that up to that date replies had been received by the association from a large number of Hunts. Without exception, they all state that it is their intention to give effect to the Board's representations by reducing the number of foxes. In many cases it is stated that more foxes have been killed than ever before. In view of these assurances, I do not think that any immediate action of a more drastic nature is called for on the part of this Board, who will, however, continue to keep the matter under close observation. Instructions have been issued to that effect to the Board's officers in various parts of the country.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether facilities have been and are being given by the Foreign Office for the free passage from Germany to neutral countries of drugs and other articles manufactured in Germany and, if so, whether he can state the approximate value of such goods ordered and delivered since 1st March, 1915, and further, under what Order in Council or document such facilities have been granted?

To describe the action of His Majesty's Government in these cases as a grant of facilities is to use a form of words which may give rise to misapprehension. There is no question of any action taken under an Order in Council or in virtue of any legislative enactment. What His Majesty's Government do is to give directions to His Majesty's ships that particular consignments are not to be captured and brought in for adjudication in a Prize Court. As regards goods ordered and delivered since 1st March, 1915, such action has only been taken (1) in the case of a few consignments of certain drugs unprocurable except from enemy territory or having no chemical equivalents procurable outside enemy territory, such as salvarsan and novocain; (2) in the case of certain natural products, e.g., sugar beet seed urgently required by important industries in other countries and unprocurable except from enemy territory; and (3) in the case of machine knitting needles, beet sugar slicing knives, scientific or technical publications required by universities or educational establishments in a neutral country, and a few articles, such as a stained glass window, required by religious establishments to complete orders placed a long time ago with an enemy firm. It is difficult to form an estimate of the value of these articles, but I believe it would be certainly less than £300,000 altogether. It should be added that these consignments have been allowed to pass either in response to urgent representations by certain neutral Governments, based sometimes on undeniable humanitarian grounds, or to meet certain home demands.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether the Board's attention has been directed to the experiments on the use of bacterised peat as a stimulant to the growth of vegetables, flowers, and grass; and whether he will consider the advisability of having experiments carried out with respect to its utility in stimulating corn and green crops?

Perhaps I may refer the hon. Member to the full reply I have today given to a somewhat similar question by the hon. Member for North Somerset, of which I am sending him a copy.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the quantity and value manufactured in Great Britain and imported into it, respectively, in each of the five last completed years, of charcoal, carbotron, carbonet, and any other smokeless fuel dealt in commercially?

No particulars are available as to the total quantity of charcoal and other smokeless fuels produced in or imported into the United Kingdom. The value of charcoal and carbon imported into the United Kingdom in each of the last five years has been as follows:— £17,580 in 1910; £16,501 in 1911; £21,703 in 1912; £29,405 in 1913: and £14,798 in 1914. Imports of other smokeless fuels are not separately distinguished in the trade accounts.