asked the Prime Minister if he will consider the desirability of disfranchising all persons of enemy origin before the next election?

The answer is in the negative. A somewhat similar proposal which was made during the Debate on the Representation of the People Bill was negatived by the House.

asked the Prime Minister if he is aware that not one share in any Australian company is now held by a person of enemy origin; and whether he will carry out the same principle in this country?

I am informed that the statement in the first part of the question is inaccurate.

asked the Secretary to the Treasury whether be is aware that John Richard Primrose, aged eighty-four, was in or about November, 1917, deprived of his old age pension because, owing to the increased cost of living, his relatives had been collectively giving him a small weekly sum, and as a consequence was in great distress for fifteen weeks, when his pension was restored to him; whether he has inquired into the action of the pensions officer in this case; whether, seeing that existing old age pensions are not revoked in consequence of pensioners being now able to get increased wages, he will give instructions that old age pensions will also be allowed to continue where, as in this case, relatives give an extra allowance to helpless pensioners; and whether the pension for the fifteen weeks lost can be granted to Mr Primrose?

Primrose's old age pension was revoked by the local pension committee in December last on the ground that his means, which included, in addition to club benefits, over £20 a year from his relatives, exceeded the statutory maximum for a pension. The committee's decision was confirmed by the Local Government Board, to whom Primrose appealed. On the revocation of the pension the relatives' support appears to have ceased, and a fresh pension was consequently granted. The replies to the remaining inquiries in the question are in the negative. The case of small weekly help to assist old age pensioners in meeting the increased cost of living is already met by the administrative concessions in Cd. 8320, and I am not prepared to extend these concessions.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether his attention has been called to the fact that many farmers throughout the country have intimated to their executive committees that they are unable to continue the cultivation of their land recently broken up owing to the shortage of labour; and what steps he proposes to take to give those interested in agriculture a feeling of confidence in his Department, which is now at a low ebb?

In reply to his question, I beg leave to refer my hon. Friend to the Debate on the Adjournment of the House on Monday last, in which the whole position was discussed.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War Whether his attention has been called to the fact that a musketry instructor was accidentally shot on the 3rd June owing to a live cartridge being amongst the dummies; how many accidents have occurred owing to the same cause during the last two years; and what steps he is taking, if any, to guard against the recurrence of such mishaps?

I very much regret that a fatal accident did occur as stated by my hon. Friend in the first part of his question. A Court of Inquiry was held, but the full details have not yet reached the War Office. I am not aware of any similar accidents having occurred elsewhere, but I am making further inquiries. Instructions are contained in the musketry regulations which it is considered provide adequate safeguard against the occurrence of such accidents.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War whether the recognition of the services referred to in the Written Answer headed "War Services (Recognition)," on 24th January last, is contained in the lists of honours recently published; and, if not, whether further lists dealing with this matter may be expected, as promised in the answer in question?

No special list is maintained in respect of these services, but in the honours lists published in the past on the occasion of the King's Birthday and in the New Year "Gazette," administrative services such as are referred to, have from time to time received recognition, and any further names brought to notice will receive due consideration for future lists.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War what qualifications are necessary to enable a man to be appointed a quartermaster and given a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps; whether any Royal Army Medical Corps commissions have been given to schoolmasters, architects, and others as sanitary officers; and, if so, what are the qualifications necessary for the holding of such commissions?

Appointments of quartermaster in the Royal Army Medical Corps are usually reserved for qualified warrant officers and non-commissioned officers and ex-warrant officers and non-commissioned officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps. In the early part of the War, owing to there being an insufficient number of Royal Army Medical Corps candidates, a limited number of other persons were appointed. The officers of sanitary companies must be conversant with sanitary science, but need not necessarily be medical men.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that a considerable sum of money is due to the Crowborough District Water Company for water supplied to the camps at Crowborough since the outbreak of war, in respect of which no substantial payment on account has yet been made; and, seeing that the postponement of payment is placing the company in a position of difficulty, whether he will order payment to be made forthwith for the water supplied?

As satisfactory terms for the supply of water by this company could not be arranged, it became necessary to exercise compulsory powers. Pending decision of the case by the Defence of the Realm Losses Commission, advances on account have been made to such an extent as seemed justifiable.

asked the Undersecretary of State for War what was the total number of quarters of beef examined during April and May by inspectors employed under Messrs. Perfect and Company on behalf of the Army Service Corps; and if he can state approximately the proportion of such quarters rejected as unfit for Army use?

In April 224,000 quarters were inspected and 302 were rejected. In May 333,587 quarters were inspected and 953 were rejected.

asked the Pensions Minister whether he has now reached a decision on the question whether an officer who is reinstated after relinquishing a commission owing to wounds thereby permanently voids any accrued pension rights; and, if so, what is the decision?

The question is still under consideration. I hope that a decision may shortly be reached.

asked the Home Secretary whether, prior to the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel Haines as the commandant of the Wakefield Internment Camp, any special facilities were granted to Mrs. Leverton Harris or to any other ladies to visit Baron von Plessen, Count Metternich, Baron Nettenbladt, or any other prisoners; if so, by whom were the permits granted, by whose authority, and what were the circumstances which induced the relaxation of the Regulations; whether he is aware that Lieutenant-Colonel Haines stated in his evidence at the court-martial upon Lieutenant Canning that someone in the Home Office wrote to him stating that Mrs. Leverton Harris, the wife of a Member of Parliament, had applied for permission to see Von Plessen alone and without the time being circumscribed; who it was who wrote the letter; and whether, in his defence, Lieutenant Canning stated that it was a fact, which had been reported to the War Office, that Von Plessen had been visited by Mrs. Leverton Harris, who had brought contraband to him, and that Metternich and Nettenbladt had also received visits without being authorised?

Before Colonel Haines's appointment as commandant, the question of visits to prisoners at Wakefield was dealt with by the War Office. I am informed by the War Office that no special facilities were given to Mrs. Leverton Harris or to any other lady, except that on one occasion a lady from America who could remain in this country only six weeks was allowed an extra visit. The facts as to Mrs. Leverton Harris's visit to Von Plessen were fully stated in an answer given by my right hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State on 26th June. As regards the last part of the question, I am informed by the War Office that Lieutenant Canning stated, in evidence, that Mrs. Leverton Harris's visits had been reported to the War Office, but did not say that Meternich and Nettenbladt had received visits which had not been authorised.

asked the President of the Board of Trade (1) whether he is aware that the manufacture of wire and wire products in this country is being seriously jeopardised by the dearth of raw material; whether wire manufacturers who have been asked to rely upon English mills for their supply if wire rods are only receiving about 8 per cent. of their requirements; and, if so, what steps he proposes to take in order to remedy this state of things; and (2) whether he is aware that the shortage of wire rods is rendering the manufacture of barbed wire in this country increasingly difficult; and, if so, whether he will endeavour to secure the importation of larger supplies of the raw material instead of ordering from abroad the manufactured product?

I have been asked to reply to both these questions. In regard to barbed wire manufacture, the whole of the existing plant is employed to its fullest capacity. From 1st June the whole of the wire drawers have been allocated a supply of English rolled rods equal in quantity to the average of their output per month during the previous five months of 1918. A new rod rolling mill has just started, and another large one is expected to start in. October next.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, during the five months ending 31st May, 1918, 48,000 barrels of beer were exported from this country; what were the principal destinations of the goods; and whether, during the same period, 2,648 cwts. of malt were exported, and what were the principal destinations?

The exports of beer and ale and of malt during the first five months of this year were as stated by my hon. Friend. The principal destinations of the beer were: United States of America, British East Indies, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand, British West Indies, and France, these countries accounting together for 70 per cent. of the exports of beer and ale. The malt was exported to the Channel Islands. The exports of beer in January-May, 1917, were 207,981 barrels.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what have been the imports during each month from January to May this year of mechanical and chemical wood pulp from Sweden and Norway respectively; and what were the weights during each of these months of imported paper manufactures?

The particulars asked for by my hon. Friend as to the imports of wood pulp from Sweden and Norway have not been made public. I am, however, sending him for his own information the figures he desires.

asked the Postmaster-General why there is no uniform system of dilution in the women's branches of the departments under his control, seeing that in the Accountant-General's Department the women's clerical staff has been diluted with temporary labour, yet in the Savings Bank Department he has persistently refused to adopt a similar policy?

Temporary women clerks are employed in large numbers in the Savings Bank Department as well as in the Accountant-General's Department. They are allocated according to the requirements of the work, which are not identical in the two cases. There is no deliberate differentiation of policy such as the hon. Member suggests.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether the executive committees in all the counties have carried out the demands of his Department in finding their quota of skilled agriculturists for the Army; and, if not, which counties have found themselves unable to comply with the request of his Department?

We have not yet received the complete returns from the counties which would enable a reply to be given to the question, and in any case the Board must consider very carefully whether the information asked for could be made public.

asked the President of the Board of Agriculture under what system the calling up of the 35,000 skilled agriculturists has been carried out; whether each county has been asked to provide their quota according to acreage or population; whether the number of recruits already drawn from each county has been taken into consideration; and, if so, whether a smaller quota has been demanded from those counties which have already done their share in providing recruits for the Army?

The total levy fixed for England and Wales is 30,000, not 35,000. In fixing the contribution of each county towards this 30,000, as the President stated in his speech on 1st July, the following figures were carefully considered: The number of men actually upon the farms in each county between the ages of nineteen and thirty-one, the actual arable acreage in each county, and the number of men who had been recruited for the Army in each county during the War, whether voluntarily or compulsorily. On the basis of those three sets of figures the quota for each county was fixed.

asked the President of the Board of Education if he can state the local education authorities which are not providing medical treatment for school children?

The following is a list of the thirty-nine local education authorities in England and Wales who, in 1917, did not submit schemes for sanction by the Board of Education under Section 12 (1) (b) of the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, for medical treatment of school children:

Isle of Ely	Kingston-on-Thames
Herefordshire	Morecambe
Hertfordshire	Mossley
Middlesex	Ossett
Soke of Peterborough	Penzance
Staffordshire	Pontefract
Suffolk, East	Pudsey
Sussex, East	Royal Leamington
York (North Riding)	Spa
Carmarthenshire	Stalybridge
Canterbury	Sutton Coldfield
Dudley	Carmarthen
Gateshead	Llanelly
Great Yarmouth	Coseley
Rotherham	Edmonton
Barnstaple	Farnworth
Berwick-on-Tweed	Felling
Congleton	Ince-in-Makerfield
Glossop	Oldbury
Hornsey	Spenborough

In 1916 the number of such authorities was forty-three. It must not be assumed that all these authorities, while themselves incurring no expenditure on treatment, make no arrangements which secure or aim at securing the treatment of defects by private practitioners or voluntary organisations.

asked the Postmaster-General if he is aware that telephone employés who perform Sunday duties of nine hours are paid 5s., or at the rate of 6½d. an hour; and, seeing that this remuneration is far below the present rate of wages of unskilled labour, will he see that steps are taken at once to put a stop to these sweating conditions?

I do not know to what particular duties the hon. Member refers, but if he will give me further details I will have inquiry made. For all save very junior established telephonists the payment for Sunday duty is far higher than that specified.

asked the Secretary for Scotland whether he can give the names of the members of the Committee whose function it was to advise the Board of Agriculture for Scotland with regard to forestry matters during 1916 and 1917; what was the total amount of the Grants from the Development Fund which the Committee advised the Board to apply for and supported during those years; what were the amounts actually applied for and the amounts which the Development Commissioners agreed to recommend and refused respectively; what is the total amount of the Grants from the Development Fund for forestry purposes which the Board has applied for and supported since the recent reorganisation of its Forestry Department; and what are the amounts agreed to recommend and refused, respectively, during the same period?

The names of the members of the Committee whose function it was to advise the Board of Agriculture for Scotland with regard to forestry matters in 1916 and 1917 are as follows:

• Mr. John D. Sutherland (Chairman).
• The Right Hon. Lord Lovat.
• Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Bart.
• Mr. J. M. Henderson, M.P.
• Mr. J. I. Macpherson, M.P.
• Mr. J. Milne Home.
• Mr. R. H. N. Sellar.

No meeting of the Committee was held in 1917. During 1916 the Committee put forward general recommendations for forestry development, but no specific Grants were recommended.The Board applied for Grants amounting to £2,500 in 1916, of which £2,000 was recommended by the Development Commissioners. In 1917, prior to October, the Board applied for Grants amounting to £4,000, which were all recommended by the Commissioners.Since the reorganisation of their Forestry Department in October last the Board have applied for and supported Grants from the Development Fund for forestry purposes amounting to £16,430, in addition to annual Grants of £80 for seventy years and £1,500 for five years. The Development Commissioners have recommended, or agreed to recommend, all these applications with the exception of a proposed Grant of £2,500 capital expenditure, with a maintenance of £1,500 for five years, for a school of practical forestry in regard to which the Development Commissioners postponed consideration until the Government's proposals for forestry administration had matured.