asked the Patronage Secretary to the Treasury whether the representative of labour on the War Aims Committee has retired; and for what reason?

The answer is in the negative.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he will consider the advisability of allowing soldiers on leave to draw their rations from a special department on this side so as to enable them to get their proper amount of food as well as to free their friends from the anxiety of obtaining food for them?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer which was given yesterday to the hon. and gallant Member for Ludlow by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food. I regret I am not at present in a position to make a definite statement as to the arrangements for rationing soldiers on leave.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether poultry food is to be reduced by 95 per cent.; whether he is aware that the deprivation of this food at the commencement of the most remunerative laying season, after keeping fowls over the five months' unproductive period, will lose more food than it saves; whether this food promotes the consumption of other foods which alone would not produce eggs; and whether, seeing that the loss of the breeding season this year will adversely affect production for years, the poultry industry will receive greater consideration before it is destroyed?

In reply to this question, I should like to point out that the true position is that the Board have been compelled by the fact of the increasing scarcity of feeding-stuffs to warn poultry keepers that only about one-twentieth of the amount of poultry food usually purchasable between now and harvest will be purchasable this year. They do not, however, on that account recommend that poultry keepers should kill off existing stocks, but rather that they should do their utmost to grow as much poultry food as they can for them, and use every means available of retaining them. They cannot clearly proceed with the rearing of as many young birds as usual; they can only rear those for which they can themselves provide the food.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether complaints have been received from soldiers and civilians as to delays, damage to, and complete loss of articles of food or otherwise, both at home stations and from foreign stations; who is responsible for handling goods or presents sent to soldier, at, say, Port Said or Cairo; and will he say who is similarly responsible for handling parcels arriving in England from the East and before they are given to the Post Office authorities for delivery?

I have no knowledge of any general complaints such as my hon. Friend suggests. If he is aware of any particular case and will give me the details, I will have inquiry made.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether when an officer of a particular regiment is attached temporarily or otherwise to another regiment, he carries with him the seniority he enjoys in his own regiment; is he aware that it is quite a common practice for commanding officers and adjutants to tell attached officers they are junior to every officer of their rank in the regiment no matter what their service seniority may be; whether he is aware that it is a constant source of irritation with officers who have served for long periods at the front and been wounded to be told when they are attached to a regiment other than their own that they are junior to officers who may have been only commissioned for a month or two and never seen any fighting service; and will steps be taken to have this cause of complaint immediately removed?

An officer attached to another unit carries his seniority with him. No case of a contrary practice has come to notice, but if my hon. and gallant Friend could let me know of any specific case inquiries will be made.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the charges made against certain privates in the Canadian Forestry Corps stationed at Penrith, Cumberland, for driving wood wagons without lights to the danger of the public, and to the defence set up that the authorities, although applied to on 22nd November last by the officer commanding, had refused to supply any lamps; and whether the War Office will now order the lamps to be supplied or permit the Canadian Forestry Corps to continue to break the law?

Nothing is known of this matter in the War Office. I am calling for a report, and will write to my right lion. Friend.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the fact that men over forty years of age, not employed in the fighting line but on dock area work, have now been continually at work in France ever since the War started; and whether, under these circumstances, he will arrange for an exchange between these men and others now employed on exactly similar work at home, under Government control, and especially enlisted for the purpose?

This matter is now receiving sympathetic consideration, and I hope that arrangements may be made to meet. the cases referred to by my hon. Friend.

asked the Minister of Munitions if a carpenter, aged forty-one, and classified in category C 1, who is a munition volunteer, and is employed for twelve hours a day in the manufacture of seaplanes, is obliged to drill with the Volunteers if ordered to do so by the military service tribunal?

I have been asked to answer this question. If application for exemption is made to a tribunal, it is competent to the tribunal to impose a condition that the man should join the Volunteer Force if, on the merits of the case, they consider this resonable. It is open to the man to appeal from a decision of the local tribunal to the Appeal Tribunal; it is also open to him to apply for a variation of his certificate.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War why the pension allotted to Mrs. B. Smith, Mullymagavin, county Cavan, in respect of her son, Private P. Smith, No. 37855, 7th Gloucester Regiment, has been withdrawn; is he aware that this soldier contributed about £20 per year to his mother before enlistment, and that since he has alloted the usual 6d. per day; and will this case be reinvestigated?

I think the hon. Member must be referring to dependants' allowance. I am making inquiry, and will inform him of the result as soon as possible.

asked the Pensions Minister whether, in view of the increase in pensions to those invalided in the present War, any corresponding increase will be made in the case of pensions granted in former campaigns, such as the South African War?

The question of increasing the pensions granted in former wars has been under consideration for some time, and a conference on the matter is now been summoned.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will see that the workers in wool stores in Ireland shall be paid the scale of wages laid down by him on the 28th January, 1918, and the payments be retrospective from the date upon which wool stores were taken over by the Government; if he is aware that in at least one store the employés are entitled to six hours a week overtime from the date of the stores being Government controlled; and if in future he will see that they are paid the same increases as are granted to wool stores in Great Britain?

I am having further inquiries made as to the wages paid in wool stores in Ireland taken over by the War Department, and will let the hon. Member know the result.

asked the Minister of Munitions if the recent award of 12 per cent. will be made payable to all those who came under all previous awards made by the Committee of Production?

All claims relating to the 12½ per cent. bonus from men not receiving it are being dealt with by the Ministry of Labour under the machinery provided by Part I. of the Munitions of War Act, 1915. The eventual decisions consequently cannot be anticipated.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether, in view of the additional 12½ per cent. wages granted by the Minister of Munitions to certain munition workers, the War Office authorities will consider the propriety of granting the same advance to similar workers in the edged-tool trade which manufactures swords, trench tools, and the like; and whether, if he has had representations on the subject, he will call the attention of the Minister of Munitions to them to enforce the importance of coordinating the standard of wages generally before any Departmental advance is sanctioned?

I am in communication with the Ministry of Labour with regard to this matter.

asked the Postmaster-General why he has recently withdrawn the motor boat "Comet," which carried the Glasgow mails from Gourock to Dunoon, arriving at the last-mentioned place at 6.45 in the morning; is he aware that the later delivery of letters thereby caused leads to inconvenience to the community, in that the recipients of letters by the morning post are now unable to reply by first post or catch steamers to Glasgow round 10 o'clock; is he aware that an early delivery without the use of the "Comet" can easily be arranged by means of the Caledonian Railway steamers now on the route; and will he see that such arrangements are made so that the trade of the country may be inconvenienced as little as possible in war time?

The morning trip from Gourock to Dunoon by the motor boat "Comet" was discontinued as a measure of economy. In order to provide an earlier morning delivery at Dunoon a special trip of the railway steamer would be necessary, and I have no reason to believe that the present arrangement causes any inconvenience sufficient to justify the heavy expense which a special trip would involve.

asked the Minister of Reconstruction whether, apart from the appointing of a Committee, anything practical has yet been accomplished with a view to settle on the laud as owners or holders sailors or soldiers who may desire to take up an agricultural life on the termination of the War?

Under the Small Holdings (Colonies) Act, 1916, three estates, with an aggregate acreage of 4,513 acres, have been acquired, and the purchase of a fourth of 1.345 acres is being arranged, for the settlement of sailors and soldiers discharged from the Army. Full particulars of the progress made with regard to these colony schemes is contained in a Report of the proceedings under the principal Act, which will be presented to Parliament at an early date. In addition, 300 acres have been given for the purpose by a private donor.

asked the Minister of Labour when the insurance agents may expect to hear the result of inquiry into their demands for a living wage; if he will say what companies are represented at the inquiry; and if their decision will apply to all insurance companies in Great Britain and Ireland?

The first meeting of the Committee of Inquiry will take place tomorrow, 7th February; practically all the industrial assurance societies and collecting societies are represented. In regard to the last part, the Committee is one of inquiry; it will report to the Ministry of Labour, but it is not an Arbitration Tribunal, and will accordingly not give decisions.

asked the Secretary for Scotland what was the acreage of land in Scotland under arable cultivation in 1916 and in 1917; and what is now estimated to be the acreage in 1918?

The area under cultivation in Scotland. excluding land under rotation grasses and clover, was, in 1916, 1,823,400 acres, and, in 1917, 1,872,600 acres. The area aimed at in the Board's scheme for 1918 is 2.190,000 acres.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether officers of the Welsh Insurance Commission are, unlike those of the Board of Education, at liberty to sit on other bodies and exercise functions more or less incompatible with, or unsuitable to, the proper discharge of the duties of their own appointments; whether the secretary and assistant secretary to the Welsh Insurance Commissioners are mem- bers of the University College Council, Cardiff, or of the selection committee of such council charged with the selection of a principal for such college; and whether he will terminate such membership, in view of the official relation of these officers one to another and of the fact that they are, as members, placed in such a position in the academic sphere that one might have to pronounce upon the fitness of, or actually nominate, or disapprove of the nomination of the other for a high educational office?

I have no knowledge of the arrangements of the Board of Education in matters of the kind referred to, nor whether the adoption of their practice in respect of officials of the Welsh Insurance Commission would have precluded the particular membership referred to in the question. I will look into the matter to which the hon. Member has drawn attention.

asked the President of the Local Government Board if (1) the Board will insist that boards of guardians having control of schools shall pay their teachers the same salaries as teachers of similar status under the local education authority from whose area the scholars in the Poor Law school are drawn; and (2) whether, in view of the fact that additional Grants are being made to local educational authorities mainly and primarily for the purpose of increasing teachers' salaries, any steps are being taken to obtain from the Treasury a Grant to enable boards of guardians to increase the salaries of teachers in Poor Law schools similarly?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answers which I gave to the similar questions asked by the hon. Member for the Rotherhithe Division on the 31st January.