asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the number of proof gallons of spirits (British and Foreign) retained for consumption during the calendar year 1917?

The quantity of spirits retained for consumption as beverage in the United Kingdom in the year ended 31st December, 1917, was 18,549,406 proof gallons.

asked the Minister of National Service whether he is aware that contractors for Government work, who through the profitable nature of their contracts are able to pay wages quite outside the range of agricultural wages, are inducing agricultural workers to leave the land, thereby to a certainty decreasing the home production of food; and whether this practice, that has been continuing for some time, will be checked by legislation or administrative action?

I beg to refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given yesterday by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Air Board to the hon. and gallant Member for Epping.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food if he will state the number of bushels of malt and also the quantity of rice and maize and of sugar and its equivalents, in hundredweights, used for brewing during the calendar year 1917?

The quantities used during the year ended 30th September, 1917, were as follows:

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food if he will state (1) the number of standard barrels of beer brewed during the quarter 1st October to 31st December, 1917; and (2) the number of standard barrels of beer brewed for consumption during the calendar year 1917?

The number of standard barrels of beer brewed during the quarter 1st October to 31st December, 1917, was 3,647,700. The number of standard barrels of beer brewed for consumption in the United Kingdom during the calendar year 1917 was 16,133,800.

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty whether it is the custom in settling the pay due to a dead officer of the Royal Marines to deduct from the final months' pay the days after his death; whether this is done even if the month should expire only two days after the death of the officer; and whether such economy, obviously painful to his relatives, will be avoided?

The pay of an officer of the Royal Marines is calculated by days not by months. In case of death, therefore, pay is only issued up to the date of death.

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty whether, in the case of officers taken prisoners, any distinction is made in respect to the payment of the field allowance to those belonging to the Navy and to those belonging to the Army, and, in that case, what is its nature; why the difference exists; and whether, considering that the two classes of officers do precisely the same sort of military land work, there is any reason for allowing the perpetuation of such differences of treatment?

Officers of the Army continue to receive the field allowance they were drawing before captivity, but naval officers do not. On the other hand, naval officers will be granted an allowance to meet the cost of food, etc., during captivity, and this has no counterpart in the Army. It is not proposed to alter the existing arrangements, as the two Services are, as a rule, serving under different conditions, and the regulations are therefore different.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, in view of the fact that 360,000 officers and men of the Army are to receive the Mons Star, the Admiralty will reconsider their decision that no officer or man of the Royal Navy or Royal Marines who was serving afloat is to receive any special decoration for his services during the early part of the War?

In reply to my hon. and gallant Friend on 22nd October last, I stated fully the reasons for the Admiralty's decision not to recommend the issue of a medal corresponding to the 1914 Star, and these reasons are considered to be still quite sound.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, in view of the fact that officers and men of the Army are already wearing chevrons for active service, it is proposed to issue instructions as to the wearing of similar chevrons by officers and men of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines; and, if so, when will these Instructions be issued?

Yes, Sir. There are certain difficulties about the Regulations governing the issue of chevrons, the consideration of which has delayed matters, but it should be possible to issue Instructions very shortly.

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty whether there is any intention to grant an increase of pay to labourers and skilled labourers in the Director of Works Department at Devonport; whether he is aware that many men with long service are employed in the Department at the lowest rate of pay, not receiving the maximum rate of 37s. a week; and, having regard to the fact of the discontent arising there from, will steps be taken to rectify such a state of things?

The unskilled labourers' wage is 24s. a week. The skilled labourers' wage ranges from 25s. to 37s. a week. In addition, war increases amounting to 20s. a week, as well as the 12½ per cent. payable to plain time workers, are paid to the unskilled labourers and skilled labourers in question. The greatest care has recently been given to a revision of the skilled labourers' wages, and it is not considered that there is any just ground for the discontent referred to in the last part of my hon. Friend's question.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether under Navy Regulations separation allowance is not granted to wives who had been separated from their husbands before joining the Navy; whether children's allowance is also not granted to such wives; and, if so, whether, seeing that this is contrary to the practice of the War Office, further instructions can be issued in order to bring the practice of the Navy into line with that of the Army, and so avoid leaving wives and children of men serving under the Admiralty practically destitute?

In cases in which prior to his entry into the Navy a man had been living apart from his wife and children and had not been making any payment towards their maintenance, Navy separation allowance is not granted to the wife for herself or for the children. If, however, such a man had been supporting them and, by reason of his naval and marine pay being less than he was earning in civil life, is no longer able to do so, separation allowance is paid, within the usual scale limits, to make good the deficit. My hon. and gallant Friend will realise, therefore, that, if a man shows any willingness properly to support his wife and family, the Admiralty helps him. If, on the other hand, being in a position to help maintain wife and children, he declines to do so, the wife receives under the amended Naval Discipline Act, a compulsory stoppage from his pay at regular weekly intervals up to 7s. a week.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will state the present where about of a conscientious objector, Alexander McIlwaine, No. 23,590, 9th King's Shropshire Light Infantry?

If my hon. Friend will apply to the Infantry Record Office, Shrewsbury, he will be able to obtain the information he desires.

asked the President of the Local Government Board if he will inquire into the action of the Stoke-on-Trent Tribunal which refused to hear the conscience claim of J. Harold Boot, who appealed under the Review of Exceptions Act and in accordance with the Local Government Board circular to tribunals, R. 127?

My right hon. Friend has been in correspondence on this sub- ject, and is informed that the case was heard by the local tribunal on the 23rd of last month, and, further, that appeal was subsequently made to the Appeal Tribunal, who then also heard the case.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether a copy of all information on the file concerning an overseas soldier and giving his former address and occupation will be afforded if application for the same is made by the soldier himself.

I regret I can add nothing to the very full reply which I gave my hon. Friend at the end of last Session.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office why the recent officers' families Grant is not given to officers attached to the lands directorate?

These gentlemen are paid on a civilian basis. The Grants referred to are applicable to officers drawing the rates of pay laid down by Royal Warrant for military officers.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether he has received a resolution from the North of Scotland Women's Insurance Society protesting against the decision to withhold from women in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps serving abroad the privilege granted to nurses in respect of payment of arrears under the National Health Insurance Act, and protesting further against the employment of women in the capacity of wine waitresses in officers' messes or dispensers of alcoholic-liquors in wet canteens: and what action he proposes to take?

The insurance society has been informed that arrears will be paid in future, and that the post of wine waitress, which has not in practice been filled, has now been abolished.

asked the Pensions Minister whether he is aware that, by an order issued from headquarters, London Command, discharged soldiers are no longer permitted to enter military hospitals for the purpose of undergoing operations; and whether, in view of the hardship involved, he will take steps to have that order cancelled?

I am aware of the order referred to, and in view of the grave difficulties resulting from it I have made strong representations on the matter to the Army Council, and have furnished them with a statement as to the civil hospitals in which accommodation is immediately required. The Army Council have at my instance issued instructions to the London and other Commands to submit proposals without delay for obtaining accommodation for serving soldiers elsewhere than in these hospitals, so that the immediate requirements for discharged men may be met. At the same time the Army Council have agreed to admit a limited number of discharged men to the military orthopædic hospitals for in-patient treatment, and to accept patients in the military hospitals for facial injuries.

asked the Minister of Labour whether it is by his instructions that the staff of the Ministry have been forbidden to join propagandist bodies such as the Industrial Reconstruction Council, having for its object the spread of national interest in the question of industrial self-government; and whether this prohibition applies to membership of political parties such as the Labour party?

The Industrial Reconstruction Council is engaged in carrying out very praiseworthy propaganda on questions with which the Ministry of Labour is closely concerned. My right hon. Friend made the Ministry's sympathetic interest in its efforts sufficiently evident at the council's inaugural meeting at the Guildhall which he attended on Friday last, and the Department certainly hopes that it will receive valuable assist- ance from them. It is, however, obviously not unlikely that the council, being a private body, may follow rather different lines from those which the Department is pursuing in the same field. For this reason it was thought inadvisable that members of the Department should associate themselves with it, and it is a well-recognised and necessary practice in the Civil Service which debars its members from engaging in outside movements directly connected with matters which they may be called upon to deal with in their official capacity. The decision in question has nothing to do with politics or the right of officials to belong to any political party.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Shipping Controller whether he can state the total number of merchant steamers, apart altogether from war vessels, which were completed ready for sea in the United Kingdom during the month of November, 1917, and their total gross register tonnage, how many during the month of December, 1917, and their total gross register tonnage, and how many during the month of January, 1918, and their total gross register tonnage; and how many of these were standard ships, and the total gross register tonnage of same, giving the number of ships and the gross register tonnage during these three months respectively?

Merchant steamers of 1,600 tons (gross) and upwards completed in the United Kingdom and brought into service during the months named were as follows:—

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that Count Presing, Financial Minister in Bavaria, made a statement in the Bavarian Chamber on the financial situation as brought about by the War, and stated that Germany must demand from the Allies huge war indemnities in consequence of the sums of money that have been borrowed, and which he stated were equal to 60 per cent. of their income; and if he is in a position to give information about the matter?

I have seen a report in the Press regarding a speech in the Bavarian Chamber by Count Presing to the effect mentioned. He, however, is not the Bavarian Finance Minister. The Bavarian Finance Minister, Herr von Breunig, later urged that indemnities should be exacted from the enemy if possible.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether, in connection with the grant to reformatory and industrial schools in Ireland to meet increased expenses, he is aware that the Dublin Corporation decided to withhold their share of the grant until the institutions concerned agreed to pay their employé s the district rates of wages; whether he is aware that the manager of the Arlane Industrial School, Dublin, refuses to meet the trade unions to negotiate on the question of wages; and whether the withholding of the grant by the Dublin Corporation will automatically withhold the Government grant in this particular case?

I am not aware of the decision arrived at by the Dublin Corporation in regard to the matter referred to; but, if they do not increase the capitation grant in respect of inmates in reformatory and industrial schools from the City of Dublin by Is. per week, the additional capitation grant of Is. per week, which was sanctioned on condition that the county and borough councils give a similar increase, will not be paid in respect of inmates in reformatory and industrial schools from the city. The manager of the Arlane Industrial School informs me that it is not correct to say that he refused to meet trades unions to negotiate in regard to wages. He says that he was asked to meet a number of the Corporation in the City Hall, and did so, and states that subsequently, at a meeting of the Finance Committee, he was asked whether, in the event of the Corporation granting a sum which would enable him to pay full standard wages he would do so, and he said he certainly would.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether Timothy Murphy, an evicted tenant on the Thompson-Orpen Estate, at Coolikerane, Millstreet, county Cork, has, since his eviction ten years ago, been paying into the Board of Works annual instalments of a loan under the Land Law (Ireland) Acts; and whether he can give an instance where any other evicted tenant has done the same thing?

Since July, 1915, Timothy Murphy has been paying, under an arrangement suggested by his solicitor, instalments of a loan from the Board of Works, for which he is personally liable. This personal liability is not affected by his eviction. I am informed that similar arrangements have been made in the case of several other evicted tenants.