asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total cost of the maintenance of all interned enemy aliens up to, say, 1st October last; and whether any portion of their cost will be recovered from individual aliens?

:It is not possible to give the information asked for in the first part of my hon. Friend's question, as no separate accounts have been kept of Army expenditure in respect of interned aliens. As regards the second part of the question, the answer is in the negative except in so far as an alien wishes to be treated as an officer, in which case he pays for his own food and clothing. In exceptional cases, where interned aliens are earning full pay by working for employers other than the State, deductions are made at the uniform rate of 2d an hour.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the total amount of Customs Duty on cinema films received up to Monday, 8th November; what amount of drawback has been allowed; and what are the net proceeds of the tax under each head?

The amounts, up to the 6th instant (the latest date for which figures are available) are as follows: Blank film, £30,588; positives, £9,532; negatives, £2,926; Total, £43,046. No drawbacks have yet been paid, but claims amounting to about £7,500 are under consideration.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that, in order to meet the cost of maintaining an Army in the field, the Commonwealth of Australia is levying a special Income Tax in addition to the State Income Tax; whether he is aware that incomes remitted to the United Kingdom from Australia are again liable to Income Tax; and whether he will introduce legislation to relieve incomes derived from Colonial securities from liability to pay a third Income Tax?

I am aware of the circumstances to which my hon. Friend alludes, but in the present situation I fear I could not undertake to deal with the matter by legislation.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty how many enemy ships were captured between the 4th and 28th August, 1914, giving their names and tonnage; how many were condemned; what was the estimated value of each of the ships condemned; and whether the money due from these vessels should be distributed among officers and men of the Navy in accordance with the terms of the Proclamation of Queen Victoria of September, 1900?

A list could be compiled giving most of the information asked for in the first three parts of the question, but it would be misleading, as it would include both ships which have only been condemned to be interned during the duration of the War (which will not therefore benefit the Prize Fund) and also other ships which were seized and condemned as "droits of Admiralty," the proceeds of which do not form prize money for the Fleet. As regards the last part of the question, I would refer the Noble Lord to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the hon. and learned Member for York on the 19th October.

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty whether he is aware that the issue of railway passes to enable members of the clerical staffs serving at Invergordon to visit their homes has been suspended; why the differentiation between clerks and other employés has been made; and whether he will have this restriction removed in view of the expense of the journey necessary before the members of the staffs are able to spend any time with their families?

Free railway passes were issued to certain members of the clerical staff at Invergordon under a misapprehension, and in these cases it has been decided that the recovery of the value of the passes shall be waived. The concession is confined to workmen, and, having regard to the fact that members of the clerical staff are eligible for leave with pay, and have other privileges to which workmen are not entitled, I am not prepared to recommend that they should be granted free railway passes.

asked the Under - Secretary of State for War whether he will give the number of doctors in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the active and Special Reserve lists at the present time, and what is the number in the Territorial Medical Corps; and if he will state the increase in the figures since the 18th of May last?

The total number of medical officers (Regulars, retired officers re-employed, temporary commissioned, Special Reserve, and Territorial Force) is now 9,626. There has been an increase of 2,599 over the figures I gave on the 19th May last. The present number of Territorial Force medical officers is 2,474.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether, from any estimate already made or figures of actual expenditure incurred, he can state the relative cost of sending soldiers to Flanders, or the western area of war, and to Gallipoli, or the eastern area of war, respectively?

I regret that the information at my disposal does not enable me to state this.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether he is aware that on Friday, 5th November, a number of motor and railway vans were loaded with beef for the War Office at the Central Markets cold stores, Charterhouse Street, E.C.; whether he is aware that the methods of inspection adopted by the representatives of Messrs. Perfect and Company were inadequate for the most limited examination of the beef; that as to the forequarters there was simply an incision of the canvas cloth in which the beef was packed for about 8 ins. on the upper side of the middle ribs, so that had the interior been mould-spotted no detection would have ensued; that as to the hindquarters the incision was of a similar length confined to the loins, so that any bruises or defects of the top pieces would have remained equally undetected; that from such an examination it was impossible to say with certainty whether the quarters were those of oxen, bulls, or cows; whether he is aware that this is all that Messrs. Perfect's inspection amounts to wherever performed; and whether, considering the large sums spent on this work, he will see that the quarters are stripped of their canvas coverings and that they are examined in all their parts, at least externally, before being dispatched to the troops?

The existing system of inspection is sufficient to ensure a satisfactory examination of the meat. The hon. Member's suggestion that each quarter should be stripped is unnecessary, and if attempted would add considerably to the cost of handling.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether he is aware that in the specific case of beef loaded by Messrs. Perfect and Company at the Central Markets cold stores on Friday last no attempt was made to stitch up the incisions made in the canvas cloths covering the beef before depositing the same on the motor wagons and railway vans; that in the case of the hindquarters many of the cloths were burst at the wing ends and failure to stitch up these breaches and those made for purposes of inspection resulted in some of the meat becoming dirty when deposited on the vans; that by the time these goods reach a provincial destination this dirtiness must be intensified; whether he is aware that no meat company would send goods away in this badly packed condition to their provincial customers; whether the explanation of the alleged meat waste in the camps last summer was that so much frozen beef arrived half thawed out and ingrained with railway dirt, especially on the loin portions of the hindquarters, that the camp butchers, despairing of effectively cleaning them without spoiling the joint, simply hacked off the wing ends and threw them on the waste heaps; and whether he will see in future that all Army beef quarters travelling to provincial or foreign destinations are at least as carefully stitched in their canvas covering cloths as those forwarded by American and Argentine companies to their provincial consignees?

No complaints have been received as to the condition of the consignment referred to on arrival at its destination. The existing arrangements for the dispatch of the meat are adequate, and no desire has been expressed in the Commands for their alteration.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will devise means for obviating the calling in of ring papers until the new issue is ready, in order that dependants may not be inconvenienced by non-arrival of the ring paper and consequent non-payment of the weekly allowance?

Unless in very special circumstances, ring papers are not called in except when payment is intended to cease. If the hon. Member will let me know of any cases of delay, I will have them inquired into.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he can state the rate of pay of Egyptian soldiers in the Egyptian Army and of British soldiers in the permanent British military force in Egypt?

Any inquiry as to the rate of pay of Egyptian soldiers should be addressed to the Foreign Office. The rates of pay of British soldiers in Egypt are the normal rates of the British Army.

asked the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that a Miss Josephine Currie, a qualified nurse at the Rangoon Hospital of many years' experience, applied for an appointment in the Queen Alexandra Nurses, and was informed that she must first resign her appointment in India; whether he is aware that she has resigned in compliance with her instructions and has now been refused the appointment; and whether he will reconsider the decision that has deprived the country of a proficient worker?

I have no knowledge of the case to which my hon. Friend refers, but if he will furnish me with the data on which his question is based, I shall be glad to investigate the matter.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the prison officers of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, at a recent quarterly canteen meeting, unanimously voted from the profits a sum of money in recognition of services rendered by the grantees in connection with the prison officers' petition for war bonus, and that the Prison Commissioners had interfered and refused to allow the money so voted to be paid; is he aware that a special meeting attended by all the officers of the prison again unanimously voted this money in an amended form in order to meet the Prison Commissioners' objection, and that the governor of the prison has vetoed this decision; and will he state what power the Prison Commissioners or the governor have to interfere in this way with the unanimous wish of the prison officers in the disposal of their own funds?

The prison officers' mess at Wormwood Scrubs is established under the Standing Orders applicable to all prisons and, like other prison officers' messes, benefits largely from public funds in respect of rooms, furniture, utensils, fuel, light, etc. Any surplus income arising from these messes cannot be properly applied to such a purpose as is indicated in the question. Under the Regulations the governor of the prison, acting on instructions from the Prison Commissioners, has authority to prevent any misapplication of these funds, and in my opinion the action taken in the case of Wormwood Scrubs was proper, and fully authorised by the Regulations.

asked the President of the Local Government Board what is the average annual death-rate from diphtheria per million of the population living, for London, during the quinquennium 1908–12; and what is the average annual death-rate from diphtheria and croup combined per million of the population living, for England and Wales, during the decennium 1901–10?

The statistics on this subject are obtainable from the Annual Reports of the Registrar-General. According to these reports the answer to the first part of the question is 120.6 and to the latter part 191.9.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he has personally looked into the question of the wages of the Labour Exchange officers on the lower clerical scale; is he aware that many of these officers are paid at rates of wages 20 to 30 per cent. less than clerks in private employ and less than postmen and other men in the public service; and if he can hold out any hope of improvement of conditions being granted to these officers or any reply being given to the representations made in their behalf by their organisations?

I have looked into the scales of salary paid to clerks in the Labour Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance service, and do not find that they compare unfavourably with the scales in force in the public service generally for similar classes of clerks. I would point out to my hon. Friend that where clerks are on a scale of salary rising by annual increments, as in the case of clerks in the Labour Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance service, it is inevitable that some clerks on the lower end of the scale should be in receipt of a smaller actual salary than clerks paid at a flat rate in private employment, or than a postman who is well advanced in his scale. Such cases are, however, not properly comparable; and the maximum as well as the minimum of the scale should be taken into consideration.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if a new appointment has recently been made of a lady chief inspector of Labour Exchanges at a salary of £450 per year; and if this is in accordance with the recommendation of the Retrenchment Committee in regard to new appointments and promotions in the public service?

The employment of women has become of great importance during the War and the problems are not likely to become less difficult as time goes on. It was essential in the national interest to strengthen the higher staff of the Labour Exchanges Department on this side, and to secure the services of the most capable woman administrator available for this purpose. Miss F. H. Durham has accepted the post of chief woman inspector at a salary of £700 per annum, and has already taken up her duties in the Department.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether British agents in Egypt report interference by them or at their instance with the liberty of Egyptians in Egypt on political grounds; and, seeing that many Egyptians are now suffering from such interference, whether he has yet ascertained the number deported or invited without option of refusal to leave Egypt, the number interned, the number required to leave Alexandria and Cairo and go to live in villages, and the number in prison in Egypt on political grounds?

I understand that after the recent attempts on the life of the Sultan of Egypt certain arrests were made, and that a few individuals suspected of complicity in these and similar outrages have been kept under observation. I have, however, no information as to the number of the persons concerned nor of the actual treatment accorded to them by the Egyptian Government.

asked whether the annual payment of £500 to Reuter's agency provided in the Egyptian Budget has the approval of the Legislative Assembly; whether it is a payment for British as distinguished from Egyptian purposes; and whether it would be paid out of Egyptian revenue irrespective of any Vote of the Assembly regarding it?

I have no information on the subject, and nothing to add to the reply already given.

asked by whose direction; the pledge given by His Majesty's Government to the Egyptian people at the outbreak of the War that, recognising the respect and veneration with which the Sultan of Turkey in his religious capacity is regarded by the Mahomedans of Egypt, Great Britain took upon herself the sole burden of the War in Egypt without calling upon the Egyptian people for aid, was subsequently broken and the opposite policy enforced without consulting the Legislative Assembly?

It is not the case that any pledge has been broken or that the policy previously announced has been departed from.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the reports in the "Egyptian Gazette" of losses sustained by illiterate Egyptians through the use of paper money forced upon them, such as animals eating notes and three owners of equal shares in a note cutting the note in three equal parts; and, 94 per cent. of the people being illiterate, whether gold will be allowed to circulate among them or any means adopted to protect them from loss in the use of paper money?

The answer is in the negative.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the amount of the Egyptian tribute payable to Turkey prior to the War is now being applied to the benefit of the Egyptian people; and, if not, will he say to what purpose it is being applied?

The Egyptian Government have, I understand, decided that, in view of the various issues involved, it will be desirable to defer the question of the tribute formerly payable from Egypt to Turkey for consideration after the conclusion of the present War.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it is proposed to make any reply to the report of Prince Lichnowsky, published on Fri- day, 27th August, 1915, in the semi-official German Press, and stating that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs informed the Prince that Great Britain as a participating Power in the War would be still more in a position to throw her word into the scale than if she remained neutral, because she could at any moment threaten to retire from the fight?

I see no reason to make any further reply than that already published two months ago. I have never threatened to retire from the fight. I hope it will be clearly understood that our position in the War is fixed by our alliances; the alliance with Japan and that of 5th September, 1914, with France and Russia, and that in our view the conditions of peace must fulfil those laid down by the Prime Minister on 9th November, 1914. It is very desirable that it should be understood once and for all that this is the determination of the Government, collectively and individually, and of the nation.

asked the Home Secretary whether police officers who have completed twenty-five years' service, entitling them to a pension, having claimed and secured this pension against forfeiture during their continuance in the service under the Police (Emergency Provisions) Act, will, on completion of the twenty-sixth year of service, become entitled to the larger pension for such continued service?

Yes, Sir.