asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will grant the free use of pure methyl alcohol, un-denatured, for industrial purposes for which it is shown to be essential, to the satisfaction of the Board of Customs and Excise, and under similar conditions for which permission is at present granted for the use of industrial spirit; and (2) if he is aware of the importance of pure methyl alcohol, undenatured, in chemical industry and of the present difficulties which hinder the development of manufactures requiring its use; and if he proposes to take any action in the matter?

The Board of Customs and Excise are aware of the importance of pure methyl alcohol undenatured in chemical industry, and have already decided to allow its use for certain purposes, e.g., in the manufacture of fine chemicals subject to certain conditions, but they would reserve to themselves the right to require the spirit to be denatured when the circumstances seemed to them to justify that course. The conditions to be imposed would be on the lines of those governing the use of industrial methylated spirits.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether, under the Budget proposals, a tenant of agricultural land rented at £3,000 a, year will be subjected to an Income Tax and Super-tax of 7s. 5d. in the £ on £6,000, or £2,237 10s. in the place of an Income Tax of Is. 2d. in the £ on £1,000, one-third of the rent, or £58 6s. 8d. before the War, thus showing that his Income Tax has been increased thirty-eight-fold; and (2) whether, under the Budget proposals, a tenant of agricultural land rented at £3,000 a year and returning his profits at £3,000 under Schedule D will be subjected to an Income Tax of 6s. 5d. in the £ on £3,000, or £962 10s., in the place of an Income Tax of Is 2d. in the £on £1,000, one-third of the rent, or £58 6s. 8d., before the War, thus showing that his Income Tax has been increased sixteen-fold?

The hon. Member's calculations are correct in both cases, assuming that in the first-mentioned case the actual profits are not less than £6,000.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether arrangements will be made for the deduction of Schedule A Income Tax from rent, seeing that it can only by law be deducted from the rent next falling due after payment of the tax, and that in future the tax will in most cases amount to more than one quarter's rent; and will it in future be legally deducted twice or four times a year?

As will be seen from paragraph (6) on page 8 of the Financial Statement which was issued on the 22nd instant, it is proposed to allow the. duty payable on property chargeable under Schedule A to be paid in two equal instalments. My hon. Friend will, I think, find that this arrangement will obviate the difficulty which ho has in mind.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that the Committee on Employment of Conscientious Objectors has declined to authorise Herbert Butter-field, work centre, Knutsford, to take employment in a retail fish shop, presumably on the ground that the business belongs to his father; and if, having regard to the fact that Butterfield's father and mother are both over seventy years of age and his father is a cripple, and having regard also to the further facts of the case, which are that the aged couple have two sons serving in France and have lost another son who was killed in action, and that three of the four sons thus accounted for were previously employed in the business, he will request the Committee to reconsider their decision?

The Committee are only able to authorise men to take up employment, under the Rules relating to exceptional employment, on work of national importance, and they cannot regard the business of a retail fishmonger as one on which, in present circumstances, a healthy man of twenty-five ought to be employed. They regret that they are unable, in this connection, to take questions of domestic hardship into consideration. It is open to Butterfield to ask the Committee's authority to take up suitable work of real national importance.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War how many promotions have recently been made in the Royal Army Medical Corps to the rank of major-general; how many of these have been associated with the administrative and how many with the scientific side of the work of the Royal Army Medical Corps; what is the regular method of procedure adopted in making such promotions; and whether it was followed in the case of the recent appointments?

Seventeen officers in the Army Medical Service have been promoted to the rank of major-general during the last five months; of these, five were men who held world-wide reputations for scientific and professional work, and twelve were promoted for both professional and administrative work. As regards the last part of the question, I would refer my hon. Friend to my reply on the 18th February last to the hon. Member for Carmarthen District.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that the men employed in the Army Ordnance Department, Pembroke Dock, are not yet in receipt of the 12½ per cent. bonus awarded to time-workers; and whether he can hold out any hope of an early settlement?

Inquiry is being made, and I will inform my right hon. Friend of the result as soon as possible.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether mili- tary foot police should receive payment for their stripes in the same manner as was done in peace-time; and whether such payment should be made to men bearing Army police numbers who have been transferred as unfit from other units?

For disciplinary purposes all privates of the Military Foot Police are given the appointment of lance-corporal; but as in other arms, both in peace and war, only a proportion of the lance-corporals are given the pay of that appointment, the remainder being paid as privates. Soldiers transferred from other units in the substantive rank of private are eligible for appointment to paid lance-corporal on the same basis as other men in the corps.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether he is aware that through some mistake Mrs. Howard, of 58, Wilburn Street, Salford, who was dependent on her two sons, Trooper P. Howard, No. 12972, 14th Hussars, and H. Howard, Royal Flying Corps, No. 62489 2/A. M., had to receive help from the local war pensions committee; that the paymaster was recovering this money at the rate of 4s. a week; that on this being brought to the notice of the authorities the paymaster promised to recover the amount of 2s. only each week; and whether he will explain why, in spite of this, the 4s. a week is being deducted each week?

I am inquiring into the case, and will let my hon. Friend know the result.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether theological students who made allowances to their parents previous to their enlistment in the Army are prevented from making the usual allotment although their claims have been examined and sanctioned by the local pensions committee; and what steps he proposes to take to remedy this inequality of treatment?

These claims are subject to the ordinary regulations, and I am not aware of any case where they have been dealt with otherwise. If the hon. and gallant Member will give me particulars of any such case, I will have inquiries made, and let him know the result.

asked the Minister of Munitions whether the Mersey Power Company, Limited, is in negotiation for a site upon which to construct one of the super-power generating stations suggested in the scheme of the Coal Conservation Sub-Committee; whether he has agreed to make a loan of £300,000 to the company; and, if so, on what terms?

I understand the company is in negotiation for a site for an extension of its works required for the supply of electric power to munition factories. The extensions do not constitute a super-power generating station such as is contemplated in the scheme referred to by my hon. Friend. The Ministry of Munitions have obtained Treasury sanction to the making of a loan of £300,000 to the company on certain conditions, which have been embodied in an agreement. The loan is secured by a first debenture, and is repayable in fifteen annual instalments commencing in 1921. Interest at 6 per cent., payable half-yearly, is charged on the loan, commencing in two years from the date of the agreement, or when the extension is completed, whichever is the earlier.

asked the President of the Board of Education whether, in view of the increased cost of living, ho will consider the possibility of giving a bonus to those teachers who entered the teaching profession before 1862 and whose pensions amount to £25 per annum; and whether he is aware that these teachers are a rapidly diminishing number and that the cost to the State would be comparatively small?

I presume the hon. Member refers to teachers who are in receipt of pensions of £20, £25, and £30, respectively, under the Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools. These pensions have recently been in creased each by £10 under the Board's Minute of the 25th February, 1918, of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he can state the detailed arrangements President Wilson has made in the United States in connection with the position of the conscientious objector to military service?

The arrangements with regard to conscientious objectors in the United States are briefly as follow:By the United States Military Service Act no conscientious objector shall be compelled to serve in any forces provided by that Act, but no person so exempted shall be exempted from service in any capacity which the President shall declare to be non-combatant.Pursuant to this Section (Section 4 of the Act) the President issued, on 20th March, an Executive Order declaring the following military service to be non-combatant service:

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware of the action of the Governor of Gibraltar in prohibiting a meeting of the Gibraltar Dockyard British Workmen's Association to discuss certain local grievances; whether he has received any Report from Gibraltar on this matter; and whether he will call for the governor's explanations for interfering with the right of trade union meeting.

I have been informed of this incident and am expecting shortly to receive a report upon it from the Governor of the fortress.

asked the Secretary for Scotland whether he is satisfied that the governors of prisons are having due regard to the comfort of the male and female staffs under them; whether, under the present regulations, if a fire was required in the small grate of a female officer's private bed-sitting room during wet and cold weather two or three days would elapse before the fire would be sanctioned even if recommended by a medical officer; whether the prison commissioners some time ago received a recommendation for such fires from the female staff at Greenock; and, if so, what action was taken?

The reply to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, and to the second in the negative. As regards the third part, a complaint of cold and dampness was received in January, 1917. The alleged dampness was inquired into, with the result that it was reported due to the exceptional weather. The officer in charge was reminded that he had discretion to allow fires in special cases, keeping in view that bedrooms are not intended as sitting-rooms. A fire was allowed and on a change of weather the cause of complaint was reported to have been removed.

asked the Comptroller of the Household, as representing the National Health Insurance Commissioners, whether he is aware of the resolution of the North Riding Insurance Committee asking the county council to make additional provision for tuberculous insured persons, so as to avoid the danger of a waiting list; and whether he will give the request his support?

I am aware of the resolution referred to. The Insurance Committee have not actually at present a. waiting list of tuberculous insured persons requiring treatment in residential institutions. At the same time, it is clearly desirable that a comprehensive scheme for the provision of institutional treatment of tuberculosis should be undertaken as soon as practicable by the North Riding County Council, as has been done by the great majority of other councils. Representations are being made accordingly to-the Local Government Board.

asked the Comptroller of the Household, as representing the National Health Insurance Commissioners, if he has received a resolution from the Middlesex Insurance Committee asking him to sanction arrangements proposed by the county council to take over liability for the treatment of tuberculosis cases in Poor Law institutions; whether he is aware that this proposal is repugnant to insured persons; and what answer he intends to make to the resolution?

Suggestions have been made by the Insurance Committee, and, I understand, by the county council, as the public health authority, with regard to the possibility for securing the further accommodation that is so greatly needed for tuberculous persons in the county, insured and uninsured; the matter is at the moment under careful consideration, and I am not sufficiently aware of the details of the proposals to be certain whether, by making certain changes in them, a satisfactory solution might not be found possible that would be free from any undesirable characteristics such as those assumed in the question, as would, of course, be necessary before sanction could be given.