asked the Prime Minister if he can now make any statement as to the progress which is being made with the promised inquiry into the incidence of local rating?

My right hon. Friend (Mr. Neville Chamberlain) would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the answer which was given on the 15th May to a question by the hon. Member for the West Middlesbrough Division (Mr. T. Thomson).

asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the publication of the proceedings of the Conference on Reparations held in Paris in January of this year, he is now able to publish the proceedings of the Conference on the same subject held in London in August last?

I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the answer which I gave to a similar question by my right hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Sir L. Worthington-Evans) on the 23rd April.

asked the Prime Minister whether any decision has been come to as to the future control of Tangier; what steps it is proposed to take for the development of the port; and will the United States be associated with any Conference, in view of the fact that the United States only recognises the sovereignty of the Sultan of Morocco over the port?

A meeting of French, Spanish and British experts has been arranged and is about to take place for the purpose of arriving at an agreed basis of discussion for the proposed Tangier Conference. In the event of the Conference being held, it is proposed, at any rate, in the first instance, to limit it to representatives of Great Britain, France and Spain, these being the Powers who actually negotiated a draft agreement for the internationalisation of Tangier, which, unhappily, did not reach the stage of signature before the War broke out.

asked the Home Secretary whether the Government has yet come to any decision with regard to the reduction in the number of assizes?

I have been asked to answer this question. My hon. Friend will find that the matter is dealt with in Clause 1 of the Administration of Justice Bill.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that Mrs. Forster, living at 139, Chesterton Road, W., is unable to support herself and her child owing to being crippled with rheumatism; that her husband, who resided in England for 16 years before the War. was sent to Germany after the War, and that work is awaiting him in this country; and for what reason is Forster forbidden to return and this English woman prevented from having the support of her husband?

Yes, Sir. The hon. Member wrote to my right hon. Friend about this case and he replied that though the case like many others, I am sorry to say, involves hardship, the man could not be allowed to come back to this country. The man is a German waiter, interned during the War and sub- sequently repatriated. The rule, which was explained in the Debate before Easter, is that such persons cannot be readmitted, more especially if they would take employment and keep someone else out of work.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been drawn to the case of Mrs. Tennant, residing at present at Brompton Lodge, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay, a British subject who lived at Brussels, and who during the German occupation of Belgium lost all her property; whether the claims sent by Mrs. Tennant to the Reparations Department have been examined and considered: and what is the cause of the delay in fixing the amount of compensation due to her?

I am asked to reply. The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. Regarding the second and third parts, I would refer the hon. Member to the answers given to the hon. and gallant Member for Torquary (Sir C. Burn) on the 27th March, and to the hon. Member for Dartford (Mr. Jarrett) on 8th May. I would add that Mrs. Tennant has been paid £20 in advance in respect of her claim, on the ground of urgent need.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the cost of the local administration of old age pensions for the years 1920, 1921, and 1922?

The total expenses of local Old Age Pension Committees in Great Britain for the years 1920, 1921 and 1922 were £52,009, £49,892 and £54,621 respectively.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the average amount paid in fees to the directors of the Suez Canal Company during the last two years?

The amount distributed to the members of the Conseil d'Administration in 1920 and 1921 is given below. The figure for 1922 is not yet available. There are 32 members of the Council, and the amount which each receives depends on the duties assigned to him and on the number of his attendances at meetings of the Council and of the various committees:

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware that in many country districts there is a complete absence of effective sanitation, which on medical assertion may be a serious danger to public health; and whether, seeing that local authorities are inclined to regard the necessary outlay as an undue burden on the rates, he will provide assistance by way of an unemployment grant, thereby accomplishing a double benefit?

My right hon. Friend is aware that the sanitary conditions are not satisfactory in some country districts, and that the difficulties in the way of improving matters are mainly financial. In cases where the degree of local unemployment is sufficient to warrant an unemployment grant any schemes submitted by local authorities will receive consideration.

asked the President of the Board of Education (1) the number of fee-paying and free-place pupils in the rate-aided secondary schools of England and Wales during each of the school years since and including that ending in 1913; and will he give the corresponding statistics for the same period for each of the administrative counties of London, Surrey, Essex, Middlesex, and Kent, and for the individual county boroughs situated within the geographical area of the four last-mentioned counties;

(2) the number of fee-paying and free-place entrants into the grant-aided secondary schools of England and Wales during each of the school years since, and including, that ending in 1913; and will he give the corresponding statistics for the same period for each of the administrative counties of London, Surrey, Essex, Kent, and Middlesex, and for the individual county boroughs situated within the geographical area of the four last-mentioned counties:

(3) the number of fee-paying and free-place, entrants into the rate-aided secondary schools of England and Wales during each of the school years since, and including, that ending in 1913; and will he give the corresponding statistics for each of the administrative counties of London, Surrey, Essex, Middlesex, and Kent, and for the individual county boroughs situated within the geographical area of the four last-mentioned counties, and

(4) the number of fee-paying and free-place pupils in the grant-aided secondary schools of England and Wales during each of the school years since, and including, that ending in 1913; and will he give the corresponding statistics for the same period for each of the administrative counties of London. Surrey, Essex, Kent, and Middlesex, and for the individual county boroughs situated within the geographical area of the four last-mentioned counties?

I cannot yet give the number of new admissions to secondary schools in 1922–23, and. in order to supply the rest of the information asked for by The hon. Member, 36 tables are required. I will circulate the four tables, summarising the figures for England and Wales, in the OFFICIAL REPORT, and perhaps the hon. Member will allow me to send him the remaining tables.

Following are the four tables referred to:

ENGLAND AND WALES.

A. Free place pupils are pupils entering from Public Elementary Schools with free places awarded under the conditions of Article 20 and the Appendix to the Regulations for Secondary Schools.

B. Other pupils are mainly fee-paying, but include a small number (about 4 per cent.) who pay no fees, though they are not "free place" pupils within the meaning of Article 20.

asked the Minister of Health whether the Government Actuary advised the Ministry in 1920 that the anticipated surpluses arising in and from the operation of the Reserve Suspense Fund under the National Health Insurance Acts would be of such a magnitude as, if applied to that purpose, to materially shorten the period of about 44 years from 1911 for the redemption of initial reserve values amounting to some £66,000,000; what was the anticipated extent of such shortening of time; whether the Government Actuary has since had cause to modify his former view in this respect; if so, what are the reasons for such modification; whether any and, if so, what sums have so far been appropriated from the Reserve Suspense Fund to the redemption of reserve values; and whether it is anticipated that a considerable amount of new reserve values, credited in respect of persons entering into war-time employment, but not otherwise ordinarily employed, will eventually find its way back into the Reserve Suspense Fund upon their being regarded as having ceased to be employed persons?

I assume that the first part of the hon. Member's question relates to the statement of the Government Actuary in paragragh 10 of his report on the National Health Insurance Bill, 1920, which was laid before Parliament (Cmd. 612). With regard to the second part of the question I understand that no estimate was made or, in the nature of the case, could be made as to the possible effect of the operation of the Reserve Suspense Fund in shortening the period for the redemption of reserve values; the third and fourth parts of the question accordingly do not arise. The answer to the fifth part of the question is in the negative. With regard to the last part of the question the hon. Member is doubtless aware that Section 15 of the National Health Insurance Act, 1918, provides that if an insured person who is a member of an approved society ceases to be an insured person his transfer value shall be carried to the Reserve Suspense Fund. These provisions will be carried into effect but I have no information as to the number of persons who were temporarily employed in the circum- stances indicated and were members of approved societies, and am not, therefore, in a position to form any estimate as to the amount involved.

asked the Secretary for Mines how the present rate of coal output per worker compares with the rate in 1907 and 1913?

The present rate of coal output per person employed, based on the first four months of this year, is about 240 tons per annum, as compared with 259 tons in 1913 and 289 tons in 1907. As my hon. Friend is no doubt aware, the present hours of labour below ground do not exceed 7 per shift, as compared with 8 hours per shift in 1913; while in 1907 the average number of hours from bank to bank was about 9.

asked the Secretary for Mines what increase has taken place in the number of wage-earners employed in coal-mining since July, 1914?

The present number (1,156,244) is about 60,000 more than in July, 1914.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in respect to old contracts entered into by British firms with German undertakings in the Ruhr district, he is still receiving any protests with regard to difficulties in their completion?

There has been a marked reduction in the number of representations being received, but I am afraid that to some extent practical difficulties are being encountered in many cases.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the volume of trade with Russia in the last month ending 26th May; and how it compares with returns for the previous five months?

The total figures of trade between the United Kingdom and Russia are not compiled monthly, and I am not in a position to furnish my hon. Friend with the particulars relating to May. The latest particulars available, which are for the three months ended March last, were given, with those for the first three months of 1922, in my reply to the hon. Member for Ilford on 15th May.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether, before he sanctioned the scheme submitted by the Notts board of sewers under the unemployment grants scheme for the cleansing of the King's Brook, he was aware that the occupiers had been ordered by an Order of the 22nd December, 1921, to clean out the brook before 1st June, 1922; that the work was1 begun on the brook by the Notts court of sewers under the unemployment grant scheme in February, 1922, for which work the occupiers are being called upon to pay a rate equal to 25 per cent, of the cost; and, if he was not aware of these facts, was this information withheld by the Notts court of sewers in submitting their scheme for the approval of the Ministry, or if he was aware of them why did he approve of this scheme?

When the scheme for the cleansing of the King's Brook was sanctioned as an unemployment scheme, the Ministry was not aware of the Order to which the hon. and gallant Member refers. It is not clear, however, how this fact affects the general question. Had the Notts Commission of Sewers not intervened with their unemployment scheme, the persons affected by the Order referred to would have to have done the work at its full cost, whereas, in the case of the unemployment scheme, the Government found all the cost in the first instance, and only requires a refund of 25 per cent, from the authority concerned.

asked the Minister of Agriculture what has been the complete cost of the printing and publishing of the maps sold to the public by the Ordnance Survey Department during the past three financial years, and the total receipts from this sale?

The approximate total cost of printing and publishing the maps sold to the public by the Ordnance Survey Department is as follows:

asked the Minister of Agriculture what, during the last three years, have been the costs of production, advertising, and distribution of the tourist and popular maps of the Ordnance Survey Department on the one-inch or smaller scales; what items are included in such cost; and what revenue has been received by the Department from the sale of these maps?

The annual cost of production, advertising and distribution of the 1-inch and smaller scale Ordnance survey maps for the past three years is as follows:

The items included are preparation of plates, printing, advertising and distribution charges.

The total receipts are as follow:

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport whether the extra money from the Road Fund, to be devoted to road maintenance, has already been paid over; and if, in that case, he can give the allocation of the sum by counties?

Presumably my hon. and gallant Friend is referring to the special allocation from the Road Fund for grants to the improvement of rural roads. A Circular explaining the procedure to be followed will very shortly be issued to local authorities, and I shall be happy to supply my hon. and gallant Friend with a copy. Meanwhile, such applications as have already been submitted are receiving consideration.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport whether he is aware that the present railway facilities covering cheap week-end and excursion tickets cannot be taken advantage of by about half a million persons engaged in shop life in this country owing to the fact that they do not leave their businesses until late on Saturday evening, when facilities for such cheap railway tickets have expired; and whether, in view of this fact, he will make representation to the railway companies to meet this hardship?

I am not aware that advantage cannot be taken of week-end tickets by persons engaged in shop life, as I understand that such tickets are available by any train on Saturday. Excursion tickets are in a different category and are available only by specified trains and on certain days. As the hon. Member is aware, the Minister has now no control over railway fares, but I am sending to the railway companies a copy of my hon. Friend's question.

asked the Postmaster-General if, in view of the central position of Shrewsbury, he will reconsider his decision to move the area engineering headquarters from there to Birmingham, which is situated on the extreme edge of this large area?

Most of the work of the district is centred in and around Birmingham; and Birmingham is therefore most convenient. There is no intention of carrying out the removal in the immediate future.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he has received any representations in favour of the restoration of the former practice of acknowledging savings banks deposits of amounts under £20; and whether, seeing that such a change of policy would involve considerable extra outlay and addition to the existing staff, before sanctioning any such proposal he will cause inquiry to be-made as to whether it is desired either by the public or by the staff who would be affected?

Except for a question asked by the hon. Member for Neath (Mr. W. Jenkins) on the 2nd instant, I have received no representations in favour of restoration of the former practice of acknowledging Savings Bank deposits of amounts under £20; nor have I any present intention of reverting to that practice.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that a return taken by the Union of Post Office Workers in 1921 showed that in 50 per cent, of the cases examined, sub-office assistants living out were in receipt of less than 25s. 6d. per week; that 60 per cent, of those living in were receiving 15s. per week or less; and that the Resolution drawn up by the Government in March, 1909, on the Fair Wages Clause, laid it down that the contractor shall pay rates of wages and observe hours of labour not less favourable than employers and trade societies in the trade in the district where the work is carried out; and whether, seeing that the conditions of the established Post Office staff constitute the standard for the trade, he will insist upon the Fair Wages Clause being applied in the case of all sub-postmasters under contract with his Department?

I do not consider that the conditions of the established Post Office staff constitute an appropriate standard for sub-office assistants. The two classes are not comparable either in respect of their qualifications or in respect of the standard of work required. The assistants are, as a rule, employed partly in the private businesses of the sub-postmasters, and the Regulations of the Post Office require that their conditions of service should be not less favourable than those of shop assistants in the service of good employers in the same district.