asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether, in view of the fact that there are so many persons suffering from nervous and intestinal troubles who are usually prescribed extra butter by the best medical advice, he will reconsider his decision with reference to only allowing extra butter to persons afflicted with diabetes or tuberculous complaints?

Food Control Committees are instructed in cases of doubt to submit to the medical section of the Ministry of Food applications for extra invalids' rations in cases other than those of tuberculosis and diabetes. Such applications are considered by the Ministry's medical adviser and grants are sanctioned in suitable cases. The Food Controller further proposes to issue shortly to committees an extended list oil complaints in which they may grant extra rations of meat or fats without reference to London.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he has received a memorial from the Association of Scottish Master Bakers asking for a revision of the Flour Prices Order of September, 1917; and whether he can amend the Order so that the present inequality of the treatment of flour users, due to the varying distance of the bakeries from the centres of flour supply, may be removed?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The Flour and Bread (Prices)Order provides for the issue of licences enabling bakers to charge higher prices where it is proved that by reason of some exceptional circumstance sales cannot profitably be effected at the prescribed rate. Exceptional distance from a mill might reasonably be held, and has, in fact, been held to justify the issue of a provisional licence, but it is clearly desirable to adhere, so far as possible, to a uniform rate.

asked the Minister of National Service whether the same treatment as regards exemption from military service is accorded to men between the ages of forty-three and fifty-one engaged in a one-man business, such as tailoring, and have been so engaged for at least twenty years and are employers of labour, as is meted out to insurance and bank clerks, newspaper compositors, blacksmiths, brickmakers, and other workpeople of the same ages in the excepted list; and, if not, will he state the reason for the difference in treatment of the two classes?

I am not aware to what excepted list the hon. Member refers. A Departmental Instruction was issued on the 4th May by the Ministry of National Service to their officials throughout the country to the effect that men in certain occupations born in the years 1874 to 1875 were for the present not to be called up for medical examination. This Instruction was of a temporary nature only, and did not afford any kind of exemption. It is already in course of revision. The cases of proprietors of one-man businesses are dealt with in the ordinary course by the statutory tribunals, but Instructions were issued in December last by the Ministry of National Service to their officials throughout the country, and by the Local Government Board to the tribunals, designed to further arrangements which were being made locally, by means of cooperation and otherwise, to afford such protection as is possible to the businesses of men made available by the tribunals for military service.

asked the Pensions Minister when the gratuity awarded Mrs. Cotton (the widow of the late Captain W. Cotton) will be paid; whether he is aware that the matter has been unsettled since he died on the 6th January, 1918; and if it can now receive his attention?

As the hon. and gallant Member was informed on the 14th instant, as soon as Mrs. Cotton completes and returns to the Ministry of Pensions the form of application which was sent to her on the 4th April, her claim to a gratuity will be considered.

asked the Pensions Minister whether his attention has been called to cases of soldiers discharged from military and auxiliary hospitals, and from the Army, whilst still suffering from the effects of wounds and requiring further treatment, being unable to obtain immediate admission to civilian hospitals or the necessary treatment; whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that, as the result of delay or inability to get admission to civilian hospitals, such eases have had to undergo operations which might have been avoided; and whether he proposes to take any and, if any, what action in the matter?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, and to the second part in the negative. Steps are being taken to eliminate, so far as possible, delay in obtaining immediate treatment for wounds and injuries. The War Office have agreed not to discharge men in future, so long as there is any necessity for further operative treatment. In addition, arrangements have been concluded with that Department for the establishment of annexes for in- and out-patient treatment of discharged men in connec- tion with military orthopædiscentres. Where this is not possible, annexes to civil hospitals will be provided. Arrangements for the admission of discharged men at special rates of payment have also been concluded with 353 hospitals throughout the Kingdom.

asked the Pensions Minister whether he has power to provide hospitals and convalescent homes; and, if so, whether he has exercised his powers to provide institutional treatment for men discharged from military institutions who are unable to obtain admission into civilian ones?

The Ministry have power to provide hospitals and convalescent homes, and this power has been exercised in a number of cases. In view, however, of the temporary nature of the need and of the difficulties connected with the erection and staffing of new institutions, endeavour is made to utilise existing institutions so far as possible.

asked the Minister of Labour whether a professional and business register for obtaining appointment of a professional or business character has been instituted by the Ministry of Labour; and, if so, what is the estimated cost involved in this extension of the original conception of the Labour Exchanges and under what Parliamentary authority it has been set up?

The answer to the first part is in the affirmative. The cost of the professional and business register in respect of salaries and incidental expenses is approximately at the rate of £4,000 a year. The register was set up under the authority obtained in the Labour Exchange Act, 1909, and is a reasonable development of the Exchange system.

asked the hon. Member for Sheffield (Central Division) whether His Majesty's Government would take the opportunity of the Conference which it is announced will be shortly held to consider an agreement for the exchange of British and German prisoners of war to obtain from the German Government some relaxation of the restrictions imposed by the German Government on British residents detained in Belgium in the matter of their correspondence and of permisson to leave that country?

This question will no doubt be discussed at the forthcoming Conference.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Government will state the names of the delegates whom it is proposed to appoint to represent this country in the negotiations with Germany for the release of prisoners?

The names of the delegates will shortly be announced.