asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether his attention has been directed to a reply given by Captain Bax, the military representative at the Staines Tribunal, in dealing with the case of the only son of a widow; whether he is aware that, in reply to the chairman of the tribunal, Captain Bax said that in the event of the son getting killed the mother would get nothing; and whether that reply accurately states the present position?

I am making inquiries into this case. The statement attributed to the military representative would not be accurate.

asked the Prime Minister whether, in considering the relief from certain liabilities to be granted to married men called to the Colours, the Government will consider the extension of similar relief to single men called to the Colours?

I must refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave yesterday to the hon. Member for Blackburn.

asked the Under-Secretary for War if he will make inquiries. into two cases which were before the Southwark Tribunal on 8th March, where one man with only one hand and another man with a paralysed leg claimed exemption on the ground of physical condition, both having been passed by the Army doctor as physically fit for the Army; and will he ascertain who the doctor was who passed these men, and if he was paid a fee for so doing?

I have made myself acquainted with the two cases in question. In the first, I think a mistake was made, and that the recruiting officer should have been informed as to the physical state of the man, so that he might have been discharged. In the second case, the man was classified as fit for sedentary work only. The doctor was not paid a fee for the examination of these men, but is paid at a fixed rate of pay per day, irrespectively of the number examined.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that the recruiting authorities are accepting numbers of attested men with weak hearts and other physical infirmities; and whether, seeing that such action is a waste of the taxpayers' money and unfair to the individual, he will institute a system of appeal from the military medical officer to an independent medical board in cases where an attested man gets a medical certificate from his own doctor that he is not physically fit for service?

I presume my hon. Friend is referring to men accepted for active service in the Army. For this men are not accepted who are in the state described. Before any man can be accepted to such service he has to go before a medical board at the headquarters of the recruiting area in which he resides. These boards consist of expert doctors, who pass no one for any service for which his phsyical condition unfits him. I may add that medical officers do not get a fee only for men they pass. The fee is paid for each man examined, whether he is passed or whether he is not passed.

asked the Under-Secretary for War the number of single men of military age who are engaged at the War Office and state how many of these hold military rank?

A Return will be prepared by the Treasury, which will include the figures for the War Office.

asked the Under-Secretary for the Home Department the number of single men of military age at present engaged at the Home Office?

I understand a return is being prepared by the Treasury.

asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade the number of single men of military age at present engaged in the different Departments of the Board of Trade?

This is covered by the reply to a similar question which has already been given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will state the number of disability pensions granted by the Chelsea Hospital Commissioners since August, 1914?

The number of disability pensions granted between the 5th August, 1914, and the 9th March, 1916, is 30,255.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he can state how the visual standard used in the medical examination of recruits for general service in the British Army compares with that employed in the Armies of France, Italy, Germany, and Austria. having regard to the fact that in these Armies it is the recruit's vision with correcting glasses which determines his fitness or unfitness for military service; and if he is aware that in the Armies of France, Italy, Germany, and Austria men whose vision without glasses is far below the present British Army standard are accepted for all kinds of military service provided that their vision with correcting glasses is considered adequate?

I will send my hon. and gallant Friend a statement as to the standards of vision required in the French, Italian, German, and Austro-Hungarian Armies. Recruits for the British Army whose standard of vision does not come up to that required for general service are not rejected, but are utilised where it is thought their services would be most valuable, provided that with glasses they can see to shoot.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether any authority has been received from the Russian Government and acted upon in this country to compel Russian subjects in the United Kingdom to join the British or any other Army?

Russian subjects residing abroad have been given by the Russian Government the option of serving either in the forces of the Allies or in the Russian Army, and if they fail to offer themselves for enlistment they are considered as deserters. No instructions have been issued by the War Office that Russian subjects in the United Kingdom shall be compelled to join the British Army.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will state the total cost of the recruiting meeting held in Hyde Park complimentary to Michael O'Leary, V.C.; to whom the principal payments were made; where and under what head an account of this expenditure may be seen; and how many recruits were obtained on that occasion?

This meeting was organised by the hon. Member for the Scotland Division of Liverpool. The London recruiting authorities had nothing to do with the meeting beyond supplying recruiters.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office, whether he is aware that the firm of Lee Barber, corn merchants, North Quay, Great Yarmouth, are now loading up oats into the warehouse with soldiers' labour, whilst at the same time a number of men in Yarmouth are only working one or two days a week and in some cases doing no work at all; and if he intends taking any action in the matter?

I have no knowledge of the particular case referred to, but I will have inquiries made, and will let my hon. Friend know the result as soon as possible.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that there is a dispute of the members of the Gasworkers and General Labourers Union with Messrs. Bunn, of Great Yarmouth, because the firm only offered to pay the men 7½d. per score bags for loading oats whereas the other merchants are paying 1d. per bag for doing exactly the same amount of work; if he is aware that soldiers belonging to the 6/3rd Battalion of the Essex Regiment have been engaged to knobstick the men; and if he is now in a position to report upon the matter?

I am informed that the dispute referred to has been settled. I am making inquiries into the matter raised in the second part of the question.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that men of the 37th Company, 10th County of London Corps, were called upon shortly before last Christmas to do parcel work at Mount Pleasant post office; that they were employed there nine hours per day for nine days; that for the first two days' work they received 8s. 8d. per man, but received nothing for the remaining seven days; that the postal authorities allege that the pay was stopped according to instructions received from the military authorities; and whether this employment of soldiers for civilian work without civilian pay had the sanction of the War Office?

These men were employed as soldiers in handling special military mails for the Expeditionary Forces. For this military duty the men were entitled only to the appropriate military emoluments.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether the allowances for light, fuel and lodging have recently been withdrawn from officers and nurses at the front; and, if so, whether he will explain what were the circumstances justifying the withdrawal?

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if by a general order recently issued the allowances to nurses mentioned in Army Order No. 501, of 1914, have been withdrawn; and, if so, will he state what those allowances were, why they were originally given, why they have been withdrawn, and the sums saved by their withdrawal?

Special allowances for lodging, fuel and light were granted to officers at the front by Army Order 501, of 1914, in aid of the expenses of maintaining their families at home. These have not been withdrawn; but the same allowances were issued to nurses on the ground that they normally receive officers' allowances, and on a review of the question it was decided that these issues were unnecessary and should be discontinued. The saving is at the rate of about £180,000 a year.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will state the total value of each kind of intoxicating drink served to the Army on active service from the beginning of the War to the latest date for which the figures are available; which kind is usually served when the men are going into action; whether all are compelled to take it; and what difference is made between the quantity or strength of that served to coloured troops and that served to white troops?

As regards the first part of the question, I regret that no figures are available.

A small ration of rum is sometimes issued at the discretion of the General Officer Commanding, on medical recommendation, generally under unfavourable weather conditions. Issues of intoxicating liquor are not made in other circumstances, except to men in hospital.

No soldier is compelled to take a liquor ration.

The scale for coloured troops in France is 2 fluid Qzs. of rum 25 per cent. under proof, as against half a gill 4.5 per cent. under proof for white troops.

asked the Home Secretary how many persons in Great Britain, approximately, have been convicted under the No-Treating and Closing Orders of the Liquor Control Board and, in cases in which police officers in plain clothes are sent into licensed houses to spy for cases of treating and other offences, what sum is usually given to each constable to expend in liquor on himself; and how much, approximately, public money has been spent in this manner since the imposition of these Orders?

I am not in possession of the figures asked for in the first part of the question, and I do not think that a special return would be justified; the number of convictions is no safe criterion of the successful enforcement of the Orders. The second and third paragraphs of the question do not represent police practice, and no such figures as the hon. Member desires can be given.

asked the Home Secretary(1) whether deserters from the French or Belgian Armies, if traced to this country, have been handed over to the Governments of their respective nationalities; and, if so, under what statutory or other authority has such action been taken; and (2) whether Russian and Belgian subjects living in this country have been compelled to present themselves for military service to the Governments of their respective nations; and, if so, under what Statute or authority has such compulsion been made?

As regards Belgian subjects I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the President of the Local Government Board on the 10th November last to the hon. Member for the Shipley Division, in which he explained the steps taken to assist the Belgian authorities in carrying out the Belgian decree with regard to military service. When similar assistance has been asked for by other Allied Governments His Majesty's Government have rendered it according to the varying circumstances and so far as their powers allow. The power to deport conferred by Article 12 of the Aliens Restriction Order can be used for this purpose if, after consideration of all the circumstances of the case the interests of this country and its Allies appear to demand it. The Russian Government has not, in fact, sought any such assistance.

asked the Home Secretary whether, if figures are readily available, he will state the number of children committed who were placed under the supervision of probation officers in 1913, 1914, and 1915, respectively, and the number or recommittals in such cases; will he state the number of children sent to industrial schools and to reformatories in each of those years; how many were sent to reformatories after having committed one offence only; and, if such figures are not now readily available, will he consider the desirability of the provision in future of such Returns annually as will show the results achieved by the system of probation in dealing with children's cases, and also of other statistical details referring to the treatment of children's cases, with the object of arriving at the best methods of dealing with such cases?

The number of children (under fourteen) and young persons (fourteen to sixteen) placed on probation by Juvenile Courts was 4,465 in 1913 and 4,496 in 1914. The number for 1913 includes 2,633 children under fourteen. I cannot give any figures as to recommittals. The numbers of children and young persons sent to industrial schools and reformatories were as follows: — Industrial School. Reformatory School. Children. Children. Young Persons. 1913 … 4,613 353 871 1914 … 4,435 387 881 In 1913, 674 children and young persons were sent to reformatories who had not been previously convicted and 332 who had one previous conviction. The figures for 1914 were 616 and 383. In many cases there had been previous offences though the Court had not proceeded to conviction. Statistics for 1915 are not yet available. In order to save labour to the police and other authorities, the judicial statistics have been somewhat curtailed for the pre- sent, and any inquiry as to the working of the system of probation must be postponed until after the War.

asked the Home Secretary if he has considered the recommendation of the Retrenchment Committee to appoint no more factory inspectors; and if he will, before accepting the recommendation, consider the importance of maintaining the laws and rules for the sanitation of factories and the protection of workpeople, in view of the intensity of work to-day and the fact that numbers of new people have been brought into factories, also the importance of doing nothing which may lead to an impairment of the physical condition of the factory workers?

Vacancies in the male staff are not being filled during the War. Apart from other considerations, it would be practically impossible at the present time to obtain suitable men. There are no vacancies in the staff of lady inspectors, and in view of the extensive employment of women in place of men and the special need for supervising the conditions of such employment, a number of additional temporary lady inspectors have been appointed.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he has received any communication from the overseers of Ealing asking for instructions-as to whether registration work should be commenced, seeing that such is necessary if the existing legislation is not extended beyond 31st December next; whether he is aware that a sum of £235 was expended last year in this parish and, owing to the Government not having come to a decision to legislate until July, was wholly thrown away; and if he will state what course the overseers should take this year to avoid further loss of public money in connection with registration, having special regard to the Government's insistence upon others adopting a policy of rigid economy?

I received a communication from the overseers of Ealing on this subject. The Parliament and Registration Act, 1916, provides that no steps shall be taken for the preparation of new registers of electors pending further legislation, and I have addressed a circular letter to overseers drawing their attention to the provisions of this Act.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the China Mutual Steam Navigation Company, usually known as the Holt Line, made a profit in 1915 of £591,005, and that the dividend and bonus on the ordinary shares of the company amounted to 106 per cent.; if he will state what amount this company will pay in taxation in respect to last year's trading; and if he is aware of the dissatisfaction felt by the working classes at the profits made by tonnage owners because of high charges for freightage and the high cost of living?

I have been asked by my right hon. Friend to answer this question. I have no special knowledge of the company to which my hon. Friend refers, and, as he will readily understand, it is not possible for me to discuss the details of the taxes paid by particular taxpayers.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether preferential low rates and superior transit facilities for foreign and Colonial imports are still in operation on British and Irish railways; and, if so, what action he proposes to take?

The Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888, provided that no railway company should make any difference in the treatment of home and foreign merchandise in respect of the same or similar services. I have no reason to suppose that this law is being disregarded, but if my hon. Friend will furnish me with any specific instances I shall be happy to inquire into them.

asked the President of the Board of Trade by what process his investigators have arrived at the increases of meat prices recorded in the Board of Trade "Labour Gazette" for February; whether, when it was recorded that ribs and flanks of imported beef had only risen, respectively, 53 and 71 per cent. compared with July, 1914, a misstatement had arisen; whether he is aware that during July, 1914, middle pieces of chilled beef were purchaseable at Smithfield at 2s. 6d. and 2s. 8d. per stone, while during February the average price was from 5s. to 5s. 4d., and chilled flanks purchaseable at 1s. 8d. per stone in July, 1914, were now from 3s. 8d. to 4s. 2d., and retail prices had advanced in greater proportion still; that New Zealand wethers at 2s. 6d. and 2s. 8d. had risen to 5s. 6d. and 5s. 8d., and ewes from 2s. 2d. to 5s. 2d., River Plate sheep from 2s. 3d. to 5s. 4d.; Australian lambs from 3s. 6d. to 5s. l0d.; frozen hinds from 2s. 8d. to 5s., and frozen fores from 2s. 2d. to 4s.; and, while the home-killed meat consumed by the middle and upper classes had risen 30 per cent. in price, the average rise in meat prices to the poor was well over 100 per cent. compared with July, 1914?

The increases in retail meat prices recorded in the Board of Trade "Labour Gazette" are based upon personal inquiries at a large number of retail shops carrying on a working-class trade. The percentage increases quoted by the hon. Member are the averages for large towns, and they appear to be correct. There has been a general tendency for the advance in price to be greater with the cheapest kinds of meat and less with the best cuts. Two factors bearing on this matter are the small supplies of frozen meat now available for general consumption, owing to military requirements, and the increased demand for cheaper cuts on the part of purchasers desiring to mitigate the effects of the rise in prices. The Board of Trade are, of course, fully informed as to the wholesale market prices at Smith-field.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether the licence of the acting captain of the "Lusitania" on her last voyage has been withdrawn or suspended; and, if not, what ship does he now command?

The Wreck Commissioners' Court, before which the inquiry into the loss of the "Lusitania" was held, exonerated the master from any blame for the loss of the vessel or for the loss of life. The Board of Trade cannot state the master's present employment.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if there are any Consuls for Germany at present in the United Kingdom who are not interned; and, if so, will he say how many?

On the assumption that the hon. Member is referring to persons of German nationality who were Consuls for Germany in this country, the answer, so far as I am aware, is in the negative.

asked the Secretary for Scotland if the German Consul for Glasgow, Van der Briele, is still in this country; is he interned; and what is his age?

I am informed that the former German Consul at Glasgow was repatriated about a year ago under an arrangement for the exchange of Consular officers. According to my information, his age is fifty.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether steps will be taken at the forthcoming economic congress of the Allies in Paris to preserve equally the interests of all the Allied countries in the great neutral trade markets of the world, especially in the Far East and in South America, and to make certain that no arrangements will be entered into likely to affect or weaken in any way the existing trade in these great markets?

I presume that this will be one of the aims of the proposed conference.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he will state the various headings and the amount under each heading of the Grants from the Department of Agriculture to which the Meath County Council were entitled for each of the last four years, including the current year, the amount actually paid out under the respective headings for each year, and the amount contributed by the county council for the same periods and under the same headings, respectively, and the total amount of balances now in the hands of the Department to the credit of the county; and whether, in the present crisis, the Department and the county council have power to loan money on good security repayable within a few years for such essential food-producing purposes as the purchase of cows for labourers?

The following table shows for each of the four years to 31st March, 1916, the amount made available by the Department for agricultural schemes administered by the County Meath Committee of Agriculture, the amount actually paid to date by the Department to the Committee, and the amount allocated by the county council towards the cost of the schemes: COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHEME. Department's Contribution. Financial year. Amount made available. Amount paid to County Committee of Agriculture. County Council's Contributions. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1912.13 2,232 0 0 1,792 18 1 1,242 0 0 1913.14 2,051 19 8 1,467 19 8 1,197 11 1 1914.15 2,246 0 0 793 0 0 1,242 0 0 1915.16 1,923 10 0 1,723 0 0 1,242 0 0 £ 8,453 9 8 5,776 17 9 4,923 11 1 In addition to the above sum of £5,776 17s. 9d. paid by the Department to the County Committee, the Department have expended directly a sum of £758 18s. 4d. The total payment which has been made by the Department towards the cost of the Committee's schemes during the period is, therefore, £6,535 16s. 1d. The Department's contribution includes grants from the Endowment Fund, the Development Fund, and the Vote for science and art classes. The balance standing to the credit of the County Committee of Agriculture in the books of the Department is £3,064 10s.

COUNTY AND URBAN JOINT TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION SCHEME. Academic Year (1st August to 31st July). Grants from the Department Amounts actually paid over each year. Contributions from the County Council and the other contributing Local Authorities. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1912–13 … 590 15 2 557 19 7 351 14 5 1913–14 … 600 9 8 467 17 8 354 0 8 1914–15 … 614 11 4 580 9 5 354 12 11 1915–16 … 576 3 5 611 0 1 354 0 0 (approximately)

The technical instruction scheme for County Meath is a joint scheme contributed to by the County Council and the Urban District Councils of Kells, Navan, and Trim. The balance now in the hands of the Department to the credit of the scheme, after deducting sums due to the Department by the Committee, is £280 17s. 11d. It is anticipated that this amount will be required to meet the expenditure of the present scheme, the operations under which continue until the 31st July next. The Department are not aware that county councils have power to make loans of the nature referred to. The Department are not prepared to advance loans for live stock other than for sires required in connection with their breeding schemes.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture what was the total number of applications for small holdings under the Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908, from the passing of that Act to the end of the year 1913, or, preferably, to the end of July, 1914; and how many and what percentage of them expressed any desire to purchase the holdings?

The total number of applicants to county councils up to the end of 1913 was 43,245. Of these, 793, or 1.8 per cent., expressed a desire to purchase their holdings. I am unable to give the figures up to the end of July, 1914, but up to the end of December, 1914, there had been 46,660 applicants, of whom 854, or 1.8 per cent., desired to purchase.