asked the President of the Local Government Board whether any arrangement has been come to with the military authorities for the allocation of men to be called up under the Military Service Acts whereby, while the younger men are drafted into the Army, the older ones are to be employed in factories; in that case what age or standard is proposed as the line of demarcation; and will the commissions to be set up be working before married men, whether conscripts or called up in the last four groups, are liable to report?

I do not clearly understand what arrangements my hon. and learned Friend has in view, but I may say that active steps have been for some time in progress for surveying the men employed in factories, with a view to seeing how many of those of military age can be released from civil employment, their places where necessary being filled by older men or women. On the last part of the question I may refer him to the statement made yesterday by my right hon. Friend.

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that at a sitting of the Gateshead tribunal just before the Sinn Fein outburst, one of the members, Mr. J. G. Wood, asked an Irishman whether he was not a Home Ruler, whether he did not consider the Phoenix Park murderers the greatest heroes in Ireland to-day, whether he did not think the shooting of landlords a praiseworthy act, and whether he did not dance in the streets when some landlords were murdered; and whether he is prepared to take steps to secure that such expressions shall not be repeated or, failing this, to ask the gentleman who asked the questions to retire from the tribunal?

I am making inquiry respecting this matter.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he can say when all the records of the Dublin courts-martial will be laid upon the Table of the House and made available to Members?

The hon. Member's question rather implies that some pledge has been given in this matter. That is not so. It is not intended to lay the proceedings of the courts-martial on the Table.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if those disabled soldiers who have been provided with artificial limbs will be required to renew such limbs when worn out at their own expense?

Repairs and renewals of artificial limbs are made at the public expense under the authority in paragraph 418 of the Regulations for the Army Medical Service.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Munitions whether Nationalists at munition works in Ireland are now being dismissed and Englishmen put in their places; to what extent this has been done; and, in view of the consequences of this policy, whether it will be reconsidered by the Government before being carried further?

No such dismissals of Nationalists have taken place at the munition works under the direct control of the Ministry of Munitions, nor have the Ministry any knowledge of any such dismissals elsewhere.

asked the Minister of Munitions if badges and certificates for exemption under the Military Service Act are issued by him to individual workmen or are given in bulk to employers to be distributed among their workmen as they think fit; and, if the latter, can the employer withdraw the certificate at his discretion without the authority and permission of the Minister of Munitions?

Employers are required to submit to the Ministry full details of those of their employés for whom badges are desired. An individual certificate is then made out by the Department, in favour of each man to whom it is decided to grant a badge, and the badge and certificate are issued to him through his employer. In no case is an employer entitled to withdraw a badge certificate except on the instructions of the Ministry of Munitions.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can see his way to issue a table similar to that issued by his predecessor in May, 1914, showing the total percentage of unearned incomes from £150 to £100,000 pay- able under the last Budget as Income Tax, Super-tax, and premiums necessary to provide Estate Duty, taking forty as the age for the last purpose?

The following table will, I think, give my hon. Friend the calculations he desires:— TABLE showing the Estate Duty, Income Tax, and Super-tax, payable on certain Unearned Incomes expressed as Pence in the £ of Total Income at Bates proposed under Finance (No. 2) Bill, 1916. Income. Equivalent Estate at 5 per Cent. Rate of Estate Duty. Estate Duty Payable. Average Annual Life Insurance Premiums (starting at Age 40) Necessary to provide the Estate Duty. Equivalent Rate per £ of Total Income. Income Tax per £ of Total Income. Supertax per £ of Total Income. Total Annual Rate per £ of Total Income. £ £ Per Cent. £ £ s. d. d. d. d. 150 3,000 3 90 2 10 4.00 7.20 — 11.20 200 4,000 3 120 3 7 4.02 14.40 — 18.42 300 6,000 4 240 6 14 5.36 21.60 — 26.96 400 8,000 4 320 8 19 5.37 29.40 — 34.77 500 10,000 4 400 11 4 5.38 33.60 — 38.98 600 12,000 5 600 16 16 6.72 40.00 — 46.72 700 14,000 5 700 19 12 6.72 43.20 — 49.92 1,000 20,000 5 1,000 28 0 6.72 48.00 — 54.72 3,000 60,000 7 4,200 117 12 9.41 60.00 — 69.41 4,000 80,000 8 6,400 179 4 10.75 60.00 4.75 75.50 5,000 100,000 9 9,000 252 0 12.10 60.00 7.40 79.50 10,000 200,000 11 22,000 616 0 14.78 60.00 18.70 93.48 100,000 2,000,000 20 400,000 11,200 0 26.88 60.00 39.67 126.55

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that Clause 35 of the Finance Bill will operate unfairly in the case of a company whose accumulating profits during the accounting period have enabled it to increase its investments, since the company is, by the Clause in question, precluded from treating the accumulating profits as additional capital, and the investments, on the other hand, will be treated as a decrease of capital; and will he consider the amendment of the Clause by providing that any increase in investments during such period shall not be treated as a reduction of the capital employed in the business except so far as it exceeds such profits?

My hon. Friend is, I think, under some misapprehension. Accumulating profits are not treated as part of the capital of a business. The investment of such profits outside the business cannot, therefore, affect the computation of the capital employed in the business.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the threat to a Member of this House emanating from the Travellers' Club, Piccadilly, he will say if he has had that club and the person therein calling

himself George Trevellyan searched for criminal matter and for means of executing such threats; and, if not, will he say whence that institution derives its immunity from the criminal law?

I have no knowledge of the case to which the hon. Member refers. Of course, the institution in question and its members have no special immunity from the criminal law?

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, before his representative attends the meeting of the Woolcombers' Union on the 21st instant, called for the purpose of pressing the suggestion of his Department to employ women on the night turn in wool-combing sheds, he will make inquiries among fashionable dressmakers in the West End of London concerning the increase in the amount of dress material used in ladies' skirts at present in fashion as compared with the amount of material used for similar garments before the War, and endeavour, with the assistance of the President of the Board of Trade and the War Savings Committee, to prevent the waste of at least 2 to 2½ yards of material per garment, and in this way diminish the demand for night work from women of the working class, who have their homes and children to attend to in the daytime?

I am afraid I cannot usefully add anything to the answer which I gave to the hon. Member on this subject on the 16th March. The Government is most anxious to discourage extravagance of any kind, but his suggestion is not, I think, a very practical one. The Home Office is very careful to limit any facilities it gives to work required in the national interest, and will, as far as possible, do so in the present instance.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if, in view of the injury to the market gardening trade caused by the present inability to import from Holland the baskets necessary for the conveyance of fruit and vegetables to market, and having regard to the need of avoiding delay in the food supply, he will consider the advisability of granting facilities for the transport of the large number of baskets now awaiting shipment in Holland?

Licences are already being granted for the importation of moderate quantities of baskets for the conveyance of fruit.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether his attention has been drawn to the results of the Wimbledon War Agricultural Committee in producing foodstuffs; and whether he will take steps to induce various local bodies to act vigorously so that plots of land now lying idle may be utilised in growing foodstuffs?

Yes, Sir, very good work has been done by the Wimbledon Committee. It is most desirable that use should be made of vacant plots of land for producing food, and the Board of Agriculture has taken a considerable amount of pains to encourage action in this direction. The President of the Board addressed a letter in January to the mayors of all boroughs and county boroughs which drew attention to the subject. A special leaflet of the Board on the formation of war food societies has had a large circulation. War agricultural committees have been asked to devote attention to it, and a Grant has been made to the Vacant Land Cultivation Society. I believe that very fair results have followed this action in many places, and special activity has been shown in the county of Surrey.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that His Excellency was recently petitioned on behalf of Timothy Murphy, an evicted tenant on the Thompson-Orpen estate, near Millstreet, county Cork; that as a result of this petition the local police were requested to furnish the Lord Lieutenant with the particulars of Murphy's eviction; that there are two constables constantly on protection duty on the evicted farm, living in the old farmhouse, and that this number was increased to one sergeant and three constables from May to November, 1915; will he state who bears the cost of these constables; whether, seeing that the Millstreet District Council recently passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of this police protection and that the eviction took place eight years ago, he will say what steps, if any, have since been taken by the Estates Commissioners to restore the evicted tenant to his holding; whether the evicted tenant has been compelled to pay Board of Works instalments in respect of a farm he does not occupy; and whether any effort will now be made to bring about a settlement of this case?

The reply to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The statements in the question are correct as regards the protection afforded by the police, who are paid for out of the Vote for the Royal Irish Constabulary. Murphy, who was evicted in 1908, does not come within the class of evicted tenants mentioned in the Evicted Tenants Acts, 1907–8, nor is the estate the subject of proceedings for sale under the Land Purchase Acts before the Estates Commissioners, who, accordingly, have taken no action in the matter. It is understood that Murphy is at present discharging by half-yearly instalments two loans formerly obtained by him from the Board of Works for the purpose of improving his holding at Coolykerane.