asked the Prime Minister if he has received a Report as to the progress and recommendations, if any, of the Aliens Advisory Committee; how many sittings this Committee has held within the last six months; whether any changes have been made in its personnel during this period; what is the annual cost to the State of this Committee, including salaries, rent, rates, taxes, printing, posting, and stationery; and whether this Committee is to be continued?

My right hon. Friend has asked me to reply to this question. I assume that the hon. Member refers to the Advisory Committee mentioned in Regulation 14B of the Defence of the Realm Regulations. There are two Advisory Committees—one for England and Wales and one for Scotland. The former was appointed by the then Home Secretary on the 24th May, 1915, to advise upon applications made by enemy aliens for exemption from internment or repatriation. In June, 1915, they were asked to undertake the duty of considering and advising the Home Secretary on any representations made against Orders under Regulation 14B, and that is now their main function. The Committee has held sixteen sittings during the last six months, and there has been no change in its personnel during that period. The services of all the members and of the secretary are given without remuneration, and with the exception of a salary to an assistant secretary, which has now ceased, the Committee has involved no cost to the State which is distinguishable from the ordinary expenses of the Home Office. The answer to the last part of the question is in the affirmative.

asked the Prime Minister if he has received a Report as to the progress and recommendations, if any, of the Imperial Institute Executive Council; how many sittings this council has held within the last six months; whether any changes have been made in its personnel during this period; what is the annual coat to the State of this council, including salaries, rent, rates, taxes, printing, posting, and stationery; and whether this council is to be perpetuated?

The executive committee appointed under the Imperial Institute Management Act, 1916, meets quarterly. The council does not report to the Prime Minister, but an annual report on the work of the Institute is presented to Parliament. The services of the council are unpaid, and the incidental cost on printing and stationery, etc., cannot be separated from that of the Institute as a whole. The intention of the Act was to establish the council as a permanent institution, but the appointments of individual members are made for periods of three years.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury why it has been found necessary to require the production of the certificate of inscription of War Loan subscribed to through the Post Office before postal dividend warrants in the form of Post Office orders are cashed at the Post Office; and whether he is aware that the result is to cause inconvenience and disappointment to numerous small subscribers, and that no such difficulty is placed in the way of the payment of dividends to rich people through their banks?

The dividend warrants referred to may be presented for payment at any money order office in the United Kingdom, and it is obviously desirable—both for the protection of the stockholder and of the Post Office—that some proof should be given that the person presenting the warrant is either the stockholder or his representative. The production of the certificate of inscription supplies this proof in a convenient way, and some 4,000,000 payments of this kind have been made with complete smoothness.

asked whether it is permissible for farmers and butchers to agree to sell and buy pigs dead weight at any agreed upon prices instead of by live weight at the fixed price?

No, Sir. The maximum price for pigs sold by dead weight is 9s. 6d. per stone of 8 lbs. or 23s. 9d. per score of 20 lbs., if the offals are not included in the sale; the maximum rate is 6d. per stone or 1s. 3d. per score higher if the offals are included in the sale.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food if he will give a list of all the use which are generally made of slaughtered pigs, and of the estimated total value at present prices of all products from a pig of, say, 10 score live weight; and if he will state the total estimate gross profit to a butcher on such a pig purchased at the fixed price of 18s. per 20 lb. live weight?

I cannot with advantage give an exhaustive list of all the uses to which a slaughtered pig can be put, nor can I give the estimated total value of present prices of such products in respect of a hypothetical pig, since so much depends on the handling. The gross profit to the butcher is in any case limited by the Meat (Maximum Prices) Order to 20 per cent.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he is aware that, as the result of the recent Pig (Maximum Prices) Order, not a single pig was on offer at Newcastle on Tuesday of last week, that the same situation existed in Darlington, and that there was a reduction of 90 per cent. at Northallerton and other markets; whether he is aware that prices have not been lowered to the consumer, but that supplies have been cut off; and whether he will now consider the withdrawal of an Order which is hampering the producer and is of no benefit to the consumer?

I am aware that the supply of pigs in various markets has shown a reduction in recent weeks. The fixing of maximum live weight prices has the tendency to increase private sales, since there is no inducement to the farmer to incur market charges; and from the information at the disposal of the Food Controller this increase in private sales appears to have happened in the case of pigs. The Order has been of great service in steadying the price of pigs, and enabling butchers to sell pork and bacon to the public at the controlled prices.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food if he is aware that, acting on the advice of the Department of Agriculture, importers of cattle foods in Ireland purchased certain stocks previous to the issue of Order No. 1,107 on the 1st November, and that if these merchants had not continued their importations there would not be any such food in the country; whether these goods cannot now be imported at the prices fixed by the Food Controller; whether, in the circumstances, merchants are expected to sell their stocks at several pounds below cost price without compensation; and whether he will make arrangements to have these merchants compensated for any loss which they may be put to as a result of the advice tendered to them by the Department of Agriculture?

The Food Controller is not aware to what extent, if at all, importers of cattle foods in Ireland bought cattle foods on the advice of the Department of Agriculture, nor whether these purchases would have been made independently of this advice, if any were given. He is informed that except for the difficulty of procuring freight, cake can still be imported within the maximum prices, which were fixed after long warning of his intention to fix them. He is unable to entertain the idea of delaying their operation by requiring the farmers to pay higher prices, or otherwise compensating merchants who, notwithstanding his warning, continued to purchase on the assumption that the markets which had been in their favour would continue indefinitely to be so.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if the Government intend to adhere to their promise to open a receiving depot in Dublin; if so, whether he is aware that Alderman James Moran, J.P. the chairman of Dublin Port and Docks Board, has publicly stated that he can provide two sites for the purpose both within five minutes from the centre of the city and having railway and shipping accommodation; and whether the Government propose to accept this offer?

As I stated in a letter addressed to my hon. Friend the Member for the St. Patrick's Division of Dublin on the 11th instant, an examining and receiving depot is to be established in accordance with the announcement which I made in this House on 28th June last. Instructions have already been given.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if the Government will consider the desirability of increasing the separation allowance paid to soldiers' wives; if he is aware that 12s. 6d. now is only sufficient to purchase half the amount it did when the allowance was first fixed at the outbreak of war, so that, deducting 4s. for rent, 8s. 6d. only is left for a childless wife of a soldier fighting for the country?

Married women without children can as a rule supplement their separation allowance by earnings, and in the present position of man-power it is desirable that they should do so. If they are prevented from working by ill-health or other sufficient cause their cases are considered by the Ministry of Pensions.

asked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the state of health of R. V. Fairest, a conscientious objector at present confined in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, he will make inquiries with a view to his release?

I will make inquiry as to this prisoner's state of health and let the hon. Member know the result.

asked the Home Secretary if he will inform John D. R. Mackay a conscientious objector recently tried by a court-martial and sentenced to one year's imprisonment with hard labour and afterwards taken to Wormwood Scrubs of the substance and nature of the Report of the Central Tribunal on account of which his application to be allowed to do work of national importance under the Home Office scheme has been refused?

The report of the Central Tribunal in this case was that Mackay could not be said to have any real conscientious objection to military service.

asked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the insertion of a Clause in the Representation of the People Bill disfranchising certain classes of persons who have set up a conscientious objection to the undertaking of any form of military service, he is prepared to advise the issue of passports to all persons of this class who wish to leave Great Britain?

I have no doubt that any applications for passports will be considered by the Foreign Office if and when they are made.

asked whether Miss Gellrich is still interned at Aylesbury; whether she has been punished or placed under special restrictions; whether her health is quite satisfactory; and whether, in view of the continued anxiety of her friends, a medical friend or other person will be allowed to visit her?

The answer to the first question is in the affirmative; to the second that she recently forfeited, by misconduct, the privilege of writing any letters, but this was only for a time, and she has incurred no other punishment; to the third in the affirmative; and to the fourth that she receives all necessary attention from the medical officer of the place of internment.

asked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the fact that Arthur Zadig, a British subject, is now interned in Reading Prison; whether he is aware that on 19th September, 1917, Zadig appeared before the Advisory Committee presided over by Mr. Justice Sankey; that this Committee recommended his release, and that on the 22nd October, 1917, Zadig was officially informed of this; whether he will now act on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee; and will he give reasons why Zadig has been retained in internment for nearly three months after being seen by the Advisory Committee?

The delay in releasing this man has been due to the difficulty in settling the arrangements to give effect to the conditions on which the Committee recommended his release. These arrangements, having been settled to my satisfaction, he will probably be released in the course of a few days.

asked the Postmaster-General whether there is a reasonable prospect of his being able to give any effect in the near future to the applications by women clerks in the Savings Bank Department for transfer to Ireland; and, if so, whether, in making transfers, regard will be had to the list of such applications which is in his hands, so as to ensure, as far as practicable, priority for those whose names stand first upon the list?

There is no immediate prospect of transfers being arranged for women clerks in the Post Office from London to the Post Office in Dublin; but, when it becomes necessary to make such transfers, regard will be had to the list of applicants for transfer.