EXPORT CREDITS (RUSSIAN PURCHASES).
asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether the grant of loans to British traders can now be extended to merchants and manufacturers desirous of dealing with Russia as a complement to the recently effected friendly understanding with the Soviet Government at Moscow?
I assume that my hon. Friend has in mind the guarantee of credits under the Export Credit Scheme. As I stated on the 10th July, I fear that existing financial conditions in Russia are not such as to justify a British Government guarantee for Russian purchases.
HOUSING (STATISTICS).
asked the Minister of Health if the following information is available for England and Wales for the Census Returns in 1921: the number of families, the number of inhabited houses, the number of uninhabited houses, and the number of houses being built; if so, will he give it; and, if not, will he say at what date it will be available?
The statistics in question are being compiled county by county for publication in the county series of reports; and the figures for England and Wales as a whole will Dot be available till all the county tabulations are completed, namely, about the end of the present year. For the counties already tabulated (London, Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Glamorgan, Monmouth, Staffordshire, Warwick, Worcester, Durham, Northumberland, Gloucester, Devon, Cornwall, Cheshire), covering some 28 millions of the total population of 37,800,000, or approximately, 75 per cent., the following figures can be given: Number of private families 6,577,123 Number of structurally separate dwellings inhabited by private families on Census night 5,712,025 Number of structurally separate dwellings uninhabited on Census night (including premises vacant owing to the temporary absence of the usual occupier) 147,722 Number of buildings in course of erection (whether as dwellings or otherwise)* 68,452 * It is not possible to give separate figures for dwellings and other buildings.
MINE-RESCUE WORKERS (SOUTH WALES).
asked the Secretary for Mines whether he has completed his inquiries into the dispute between the mine-rescue workers of South Wales and Monmouthshire and the colliery owners; if so, will he state what the position now is; whether training is being continued; and will he take steps to secure that any alteration in pay or conditions shall in future only take place after consultation and negotiation?
I under stand that a reduction of the payments made to rescue workers was considered, by the rescue associations in the South Wales district, to be justified in view of the substantial reductions which had taken place in the wages of colliery workers generally since the time when the rates previously payable were fixed. As the hon. Member is no doubt aware, I have no power to prescribe the procedure to be followed in these matters; that must be settled between the parties concerned. So far as I know, no suspension of training has taken place.