asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland when Mrs. Mary Berney, 33, Lower Gardener Street, Dublin, may expect to receive compensation for losses sustained owing to the destruction of her furniture by the military during the rising in Dublin?

A claim was submitted to the Property Losses Committee in March last, but the Committee had completed its investigations. The question of investigation by another tribunal is at present under consideration.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether military officers acting as military representatives on tribunals who are qualified to practise as solicitors or barristers are employed to appear for the prosecution at the trial of absentees, etc.; whether these officers receive any fees for appearing in Court; whether the fees, if paid, are additional to the Army pay; and, if so, why are these extra moneys paid to men who are supposed to devote all their time and energy to the service of the State for the remuneration paid to them as military officers?

The rule is that officers who represent the military authorities before tribunals and before magistrates when the latter are dealing with cases of absentees are recruiting officers who devote the whole of their time to recruiting duties of one kind or another. They receive the pay and allowances of their rank as officers, and no other fees of any kind.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that the illegitimate child of a soldier or sailor whose father has been killed in the War is entitled to a pension of 5s. a week, but that the illegitimate child of a soldier on active service is entitled to nothing; and whether he will take steps to equalise the position so that the child may be entitled to 5s. a week from birth, seeing that no claim for an affiliation order can be made against a soldier or sailor on active service?

The State maintains the child whose father is killed in the War, but I do not think it follows that the State should also in all cases relieve the living father of his responsibility.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will endeavour to accelerate the payment of the separation allowance to Mrs. Biggle-stone, of 7, Landseer Road, Upper Holloway, the widowed mother of Private H. E. Bigglestone, No. 10915, No. 1 Company, 1st Reserve, Honourable Artillery Company, who joined up on 19th May, and whose support he was, he being her only son; and is he aware of the dissatisfaction at the way in which many poor women are left inadequately provided for owing to the long delays in settling and paying these allowances?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given yesterday to my hon. Friend the Member for the Thornbury Division of Gloucestershire.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he is aware that the three dependants of Private B. Keeble, No. 322,200, formerly Gunner B. Keeble, No. 199,908, School Pay Office, 6th Reserve Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (T), Biscot Camp, Luton, Bedfordshire, his wife, child, and mother, have had only a few weeks' allowance since he enlisted on 17th January, 1917; that the allowance to his wife was stopped because he could not produce the certificate of his marriage on 10th August, 1907, at Bruges; and that he was offered the alternative of filling in the unmarried soldier's claim, which was distasteful to himself and his wife; will he say whether liability to produce evidence of a marriage in a country now in enemy occupation is to be a bar to an allowance which is granted even to unmarried wives; and whether there is power to deal with such cases on a more reasonable basis?

Experience shows that caution must be exercised in dealing with cases in which the marriage certificates are not forthcoming. But I have looked into this particular claim and have authorised the issue of the wife's separation allowance pending completion of the investigation which is being pursued.

asked the Pensions Minister why Mrs. Ada Harvey, of 4, Over Place, in the war pensions district of Lambeth, mother of Private T. H. Harvey, No. 21167, of the 44th Training Reserve Battalion, who enlisted on the 24th February, 1917, has not yet received her separation allowance, together with many others in this district?

As I stated yesterday, I am in communication with my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the matter of delays.

asked the Home Secretary whether he has received applications to grant to police and prison warder pensioners an increase of pension corresponding to the increase made in respect of old age pensions; and whether, in view of the increased cost of living, he has taken or proposes to take any such steps with regard to this class of pensioner?

With regard to prison warders, I would refer the hon. Member to the answers given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the hon. and gallant Member for Christchurch on 6th June last, and by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the hon. Member for Dublin Harbour on 16th July. The same considerations which apply to retired Civil servants apply to police pensioners, and I do not feel able to propose legislation for the increase of their pensions.

asked the First Lord of the Treasury if he can furnish any recent news of the condition of prisoners in the hands of the Turks, taken at Kut; can parcels be sent to them; and what means are being taken to improve their conditions?

His Majesty's Government have received no recent reports respecting the condition of British prisoners of war in Turkey, but there is, unfortunately, no reason to think that it has improved. The Netherlands Minister at Constantinople is still pressing the Turkish Government for permission to visit the camps, and a request for a similar permission has also been made to the Turkish Government by the International Red Cross Society. The transmission of parcels through Austria was interrupted from February to April last, and again in June and July, but their transmission in limited quantities is now permitted. There is reason to think that a fair proportion of the parcels reached the prisoners, although irregularly and with great delay. As the hon. Member is already aware, monthly relief allowance of £T3 is issued to all British noncommissioned officers and men in Turkey by the Netherlands Legation, which also forwards to them supplies in kind. There is no distinction in any of the above respects to be made between prisoners taken at Kut and other British prisoners in Turkey.

asked the Attorney-General whether his attention has been directed to the diversity of recent decisions relating to provisions directing that Death Duties on legacies are to be paid out of the testator's residuary estate, as to whether the amount of the Death Duties to be so paid out of the resi- duary estate is the amount of the Death Duties existing at the time of the testator's death, or existing at the time when the legacy is paid, or at the time when the residue is distributed; and whether he proposes to introduce legislation removing doubts by assimilating the rule in such cases to the general law that, in the absence of contrary intention, the will speaks from the date of the testator's death?

It is open to a testator who gives a legacy to direct that the duties thereon shall be paid out of his residuary estate. What particular duties are covered by the direction depends upon its language. Where the legacy is given to persons in succession, then on the death of the life tenant (other than the spouse) it is chargeable under the Finance Act, 1914, with a second Estate Duty, the rate of which will depend upon the aggregate value of the property passing on such death. This rate cannot be foreseen at the time of the testator's death, and if the direction in the will is sufficient to cover the future duty the executors have to provide for it, but cannot ascertain with precision how much to set apart for the purpose. The direction in the will might also extend to Legacy Duty upon the same event. Several cases upon this point have recently come before the Courts, but they all turned upon the construction of the particular will, and if the decisions may seem to conflict it is because the directions to be construed were diverse. The suggestion which I understand my hon. Friend to make is that directions in a will for the payment of Death Duties out of another fund should, by a Clause to be enacted, be restricted to duties payable on the testator's own death, leaving duties on subsequent deaths in respect of property settled by the will to be paid out of the settled property itself as if the direction were nonexistent. The effect would be to limit the testator's power of disposition over his own property—a course only to be adopted after very careful consideration.