asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the number of temporary civil servants with a salary of over £500 who have been made permanent during the last six months; and whether he will state the policy of the Treasury in this respect?

Two temporary civil servants have been certificated for appointment to permanent posts carrying salaries over £500 per annum in the last six months. It is the duty of the Treasury before approving such appointments to satisfy itself that it is in the interests of the public service to depart from the normal methods of appointment whether in the ordinary course of promotion or under the usual regulations for recruitment to the situation concerned.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the importance of encouraging the sale of wholesome non-alcoholic drinks, the Government will consider the possibility of reviewing the existing duties on table waters, which were imposed as a War measure in 1916, and amount to 4d. a gallon on sweetened waters and 8d. a gallon on unsweetened waters, seeing that these taxes are discouraging the sale of non-alcoholic drinks, and that manufacturers of aerated waters contribute to the revenue through the sugar and essences employed, computed to amount to an average of 4d. per gallon?

All relevant considerations will be taken into account in framing the Budget statement, which I am unable to anticipate.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury what would be the estimated cost to the State of a system of age pensions granted to all old people over 70 years of age whose private means did not exceed £50 a year?

The information asked for by my hon. Friend is not available.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he can hold out any hope that, bearing in mind the acknowledged equality of the sexes, an alteration will be made in the present law which treats as one the income of husband and wife for taxation purposes?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer (a copy of which I am sending him) given on the 1st instant in reply to a question on this subject by the hon. Member for Wallasey (Mr. M'Donald).

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware of the serious hardship placed upon the owner-drivers of taxi-cabs who have cabs of French and Italian manufacture because of the 33⅓ per cent. import duty on spare parts and complete chassis; and whether he can abolish the said duty and place taxi-cabs in the same position as other commercial motor vehicles?

I am aware that representations have been made in the sense of the first part of the question. As regards the second part, I cannot anticipate my Budget statement.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any steps have been taken to recover the sum of £607 2s. 5d., being the balance of a sum of £6,416 11s. 5d. which was reported by the Public Accounts Committee in 1920 as not properly chargeable to the Vote of the Ministry of Information, 1918–19, and was subsequently disallowed by the Treasury; and, if so, what has been the result?

It has not proved possible to recover this sum. The matter will come before the Public Accounts Committee in due course.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if his attention has been called to proposals now being made advocating that public authorities should be allowed to issue bonds bearing no interest for carrying out public works, such bonds to be negotiable as legal tender and accepted as such for the payment of local rates, and to be redeemable by regular instalments from the local rates within a definite period of time; what effect such a proposal, if adopted, would have upon the money market and the currency of the country; whether the Treasury has ever sanctioned such an experiment; and, if so, with what result?

I do not know to what special proposals the hon. Member refers, but suggestions on similar lines are being constantly put forward with equally little reason to commend them. The effect of giving legal tender privileges to issues of bonds, whether interest bearing or not, would be similar to, though possibly more disastrous than, that of other methods of depreciating the currency and creating a new volume of immediately exerciseable purchasing power without any corresponding addition to the volume of immediately consumable goods and services. The answer to the third part of the question is in the negative; and the last part does not arise.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, having regard to the recent demands for the removal of the Entertainments Duty, the special grievances of the smaller and most numerous football and other sporting clubs have been brought to his notice; whether it has been represented to him that the financial existence of the majority of such clubs is imperilled by the continued imposition of the duty, and that large numbers of them have suffered by reason of diminished support owing to the duty rendering their gate prices either prohibitive to their supporters or uneconomic to the clubs themselves; and whether, in view of the great value of these clubs to the life and health of the State, he can consider the desirability of seeking a means of distinguishing, for the purposes of taxation, between such sporting and other athletic clubs and forms of entertainment the taxation of which will not produce such a potentially serious effect upon the health of the State?

I cannot trace that I have received representations of the nature referred to. As regards the last part of the question, I am not clear what practical test of exemption my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind, but in this connection I would refer him to my reply of the 23rd instant to the hon. and gallant Member for Basingstoke (Sir A. Holbrook).

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in connection with contra accounts rendered by agents to their principals where the commission and expenses to be deducted or taken credit for exceed £2, it is not the custom to affix the stamp required by law, the responsibility for affixing which rests solely with the agent; whether any estimate has been made of the annual loss to the Exchequer through this evasion of the law; and whether, in order to strengthen the law, he will consider the advisability of providing that the responsibility for affixing the stamp in such cases shall reside jointly with the principals and their agent?

The account rendered by an agent to his principal showing the amounts collected by him and taking credit for commission and expenses due to him does not constitute a receipt for the amount of the commission and expenses and is therefore not liable to Receipt Stamp Duty.

asked the Secretary of State for War the number of officers on full pay or half pay now in China; how many are employed by the Chinese Government; how many are paid by the Chinese Government; and how many have received permission for visiting China to qualify for interpreterships or other reasons of a temporary character?

Including officers of the Indian Army there are 116 officers on full pay employed by the Army in China. This total consists mainly of the officers of the garrisons of Hong Kong and Tientsin but includes four officers who are qualifying for interpreterships, and the military attaché. One officer on half-pay is employed by the Shanghai municipal authorities as commandant of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. No officers on full or half-pay are employed or paid by the Chinese Government.

asked the Secretary of State for Air the number of officers on full pay or half-pay now in China; how many are employed by the Chinese Government; how many are paid by the Chinese Government; and how many have received permission for visiting China to qualify for interpreterships or other reasons of a temporary character?

The only Air Force officer in China is one who is loaned to and wholly paid by the Chinese Government.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the number of officers on full pay or half-pay now in China; how many are employed by the Chinese Government; how many are paid by the Chinese Government; and how many have received permission for visiting China to qualify for interpreter-ships or other reasons of a temporary character?

Four naval officers are at present employed in China, none of whom is paid or employed by the Chinese Government. Two of these are in China for the purpose of studying the language, and the other two hold permanent posts at Shanghai. So far as the Admiralty are aware, no officers on half-pay are now in China, but one was granted permission to proceed to Hong Kong on private business last year.

asked the Secretary of State for War the arrangements proposed for linking the regiments of cavalry, showing how many squadrons are to be allotted to each regiment?

I regret that I am not in a position to give further details on this subject at present.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to a document laid before the French Chamber of Deputies giving the losses in the War, in respect of men and tonnage of ships, of the various combatants; whether the figures given are officially compiled; and whether, in that case, he will secure a copy of the statement for the information of the House?

I have not seen the document referred to, but will make inquiries.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies when a man who enlisted in the Royal Irish Constabulary for 12 months, and was demobilised seven weeks ago after three months' service on the terms that he received a bounty of £25 and full pay for the unexpired portion of the 12 months, may expect to receive the bounty and unexpired portion of pay?

These payments are now being made.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Government repudiates the pledge given to Canada at the Imperial Conference in 1917 promising the removal of the embargo on Canadian cattle; and whether such repudiation has been notified to the Dominion Government?

The point raised in the first part of the question was dealt with in the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Agriculture on 9th February to a supplementary question asked by the hon. Member for Central Aberdeen (Major M. Wood). As to the second part, I cannot add anything to the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend on 16th March.

asked the President of the Board of Education what course the Board propose to adopt in the case of Part II authorities who are now exercising their powers under the Education (Choice of Employment) Act, 1910, when the existing schemes approved by the Board terminate on the 30th June, 1922, in accordance with Official Circular 1,233, in the event of new schemes consequent upon the issue of the Chelmsford Report not having been submitted to and approved by the Board by that date?

If an authority has passed a resolution indicating that it intends to exercise powers in accordance with Lord Chelmsford's Report, and if the circumstances are such as are indicated in the question, the Board will be prepared to give such reasonable extension to the approval of the existing scheme as will enable it to be replaced by a new one appropriate to the new conditions.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he can give any indication as to when the Ashford market will be allowed to be opened for the sale of store stock provided there is no fresh outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the district?

I shall be prepared to consider the reopening of AsLford market for the sale of store stock in about a fortnight's time, provided no further outbreaks of disease occur in the locality in the interval. The exact date will depend on the general outlook, but I am anxious to afford as much relief as can safely be given as soon as possible.

asked the hon. Member for Monmouth as representing the Forestry Commissioners when the account and Report for the financial year ending 31st March, 1921, referred to in Section 8, Sub-section (4), paragraph (1), of the Forestry Act, 1919, will be laid before Parliament?

The Report by the Comptroller and Auditor-General on the account of the Forestry Fund is included with his Reports on the Appropriation Accounts, 1920–21, of Civil Service and Revenue Departments, presented to Parliament and ordered by the Commons House of Parliament to be printed on 10th February, 1922, which have since been published.

asked the Minister of Health if insured persons in the village and district of Blanchland, Northumberland, are unable to get the medical attention for which they and their employers-pay under the National Health Insurance Act; that a Mrs. Brown, an insured person, had recently to pay £2 12s. 6d. for doctor's fees, and that generally sickness benefit cannot be, claimed owing to the cost of getting a doctor to sign the necessary certificate; and if he will take steps to stop this method of making poor people pay heavily for nothing?

After the death of the only doctor resident in Blanchland the Insurance Committees concerned made arrangements with the two nearest practitioners to assume responsibility for the treatment of the insured persons in this sparsely populated area. No complaint has been received from Mrs. Brown, but if the hon. and gallant Member will furnish me with further particulars I will have immediate inquiry made.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India, if he is aware of the rejection by the Indian Legislative Assembly of the proposal to increase the cotton excise duty to 7½ per cent.; whether this decision will mean that a duty of 15 per cent. will be levied on the full value of all Lancashire cotton goods entering India with a countervailing excise duty of only 3½ per cent.; and whether the Secretary of State for India has made, or will make, representation to the Indian Legislative Assembly on the matter?

The Legislative Assembly has rejected the proposed increase of the cotton duty to 15 per cent., as well as that of the cotton excise to 7½ per cent.

asked the Minister of Labour if he can supply any comparative table showing the relative rise in the cost of living now in Great Britain, France, Italy, the United States, and Germany?

asked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the recent inflammatory speeches and manifestoes of leading Communists in this country, whereby the intention is openly declared of using the industrial unrest, strikes, lock-outs, etc., to promote and stimulate revolution amongst the working classes of this country, he will take prompt and effective steps to arrest and deport all alien agents whose obvious mission here is to direct the revolution and provide funds to subsidise it?

The following tabular statement gives the percentage increase in cost of living as compared with pre-War period:

I would refer the hon. Member to the answer to a very similar question which my right hon. Friend gave him on 1st November last, and would repeat that aliens who can be proved to have incited to violence or committed other offences against the law are deported, if this course is practicable.

asked the Home Secretary whether, following upon the lock-out of engineers, 40 members of the staff of Messrs. Peel, Connor's telephone works, Coventry, were sworn in as special constables; whether this enrolment of special constables was done at his request or with his approval; and, if so, can he state the reason?

My right hon. Friend has no information on this matter, which rests entirely with the local police authorities.

asked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the remarks made at the inquest on James Hutton Williamson by the coroner to the effect that executions are a mistake, a barbaric system, and no detriment to crime; and whether he will set up a Committee to examine the arguments upon this subject or, alternatively, instruct a permanent official at the Home Office to receive and examine written arguments upon the matter?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, and to the second part in the negative.

asked the Home Secretary whether he can state the percentage return to capital employed in the State purchase undertakings for each of the last three years, so as to enable an opinion to be formed as to their commercial success; and whether he will give separately in his answer the figures for the Carlisle area?

In the subjoined Table I give the figures asked for, but I think it right to add that a bare statement of the percentage return to capital employed would not, speaking generally, afford a very sure foundation for an opinion as to the success of an ordinary commercial undertaking, or for a comparison of it with similar concerns.