asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty whether, in view of the fact that service requirements demands the services of two unskilled acting surgery assistants in the surgery of His Majesty's Dockyard at Portsmouth, he will authorise them to be paid at the new minimum rate of pay for surgery assistants laid down in A.F.O. 2676 of 1924, but without the additional increments?

:Service requirements are adequately met by the arrangement at present in force. It is not proposed therefore to replace the two men now employed by qualified surgery assistants.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty whether, in view of the fact that a number of naval ratings granted compassionate leave from foreign stations during the last six months have not fully understood the conditions under which such leave was granted and their responsibility in the matter of return fares, a Fleet Order may be issued stating all the conditions in plain language?

:I am not aware that there has been any recent misunderstanding on this subject but, to prevent all possibility of any such misunderstanding occurring, the Fleet Order which deals with the matter will be revised and re-issued.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Bombay Excise Committee, in which it was recommended that prohibition of drink and drugs should be completed as early as possible; and whether, as the Bombay Government has passed a Resolution upon the Report to the effect that serious efforts should be made to surmount the financial and administrative difficulties, he can arrange for a copy of the Report and of the Resolution to be placed in the Library?

:The attention of my Noble Friend has been drawn to the Report and Resolution. The Resolution adopts the recommendation of the Committee that the Government should declare that the total extinction of the traffic in alcoholic drink and drugs by suitable steps is the goal of their Excise policy and states, in the words quoted by the hon. Member, that a serious effort should be made to surmount the difficulties, both financial and administrative, which stand in the way of the adoption of such a policy. It also outlines the action which the Government propose to take in the immediate future. A copy of the Report and Resolution will be placed in the Library.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that on the North-Western Railway of India the posts of superintendents, inspectors, controllers, stationmasters, etc., are filled by 137 Anglo-Indians and Europeans and only 12 Indians, with the exception of Class E (11), in which there are 20 Indians to 57 Anglo-Indians and Europeans; and whether the Government of India propose to increase the number of Indians?

:The numbers are approximately correct. It is the policy of the Government of India to increase the number of Indians as circumstances permit.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that goods clerks on the North-Western Railway at Karachi work ordinarily nine hours per day and at times 10 hours per day without extra pay for overtime; and whether the Government propose to take any steps in regard to this matter?

:Nine working hours a day in two periods, with an intervening recess of one hour, have been fixed for the clerks referred to. The strength of the staff is such as to limit work ordinarily to 10 hours a day as a maximum, and the payment of extra wages when, as occasionally happens, these hours are exceeded, is not considered to be justified.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware of the racial distinction between European, together with Anglo-Indian, and Indian apprentices on the North-Western Railway of India in respect of payment for subsistence and hostel charges, which in the case of Indians is less than half the payment made to Europeans and Anglo-Indians on the ground that this difference represents the difference in standard of living; and whether the Government of India intends to remove this racial distinction by insisting on equal total pay for equal work?

:The rate of pay for work done is the same for all classes of apprentices. The differences in the allowances for subsistence and hostel charges are justified by the difference in the cost of living of Europeans and Anglo-Indians as compared with Indians.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether clerks in the transit office at Hyderabad of the North-Western Railway work ordinarily 12 hours per day on duty without any pay for overtime; and whether the Government propose to take any steps to remedy this state of affairs?

The clerks referred to are 12 hours on duty, the work being intermittent. It is proposed to reduce this to 8½ hours' actual work.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the whole cost of maintaining the British Legation at Kabil is paid by Indian or British revenues?

:For the present, Indian revenues contribute the whole of the expenses.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he can state when the British occupation of the Cologne area is likely to end?

No, Sir

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in the case of Mrs. Catherine Orr, of Fairfield, Partick Hill Road, Glasgow, he will make representations to the American Government to enable her forthwith to join her husband, who has been resident in the United States for 18 months, she being at present unable to get admission to the United States earlier than 1st January, 1927?

:No information in regard to this case has been received by my Department The difficulties encountered by Mrs. Orr appear, however, to arise out of United States legislation, and I regret that the matter is not one in which His Majesty's Government can intervene with any prospect of usefulness.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that the British shareholders have still not been paid the interest on the November and December coupons of the Tientsin-Pukow (German Issue) Loan; and what steps the British Minister in Peking has taken to urge on the Chinese Government the need for meeting its liabilities in this respect?

:I am aware that the default on the German issue of this Loan has not yet been made good. His Majesty's Minister at Peking, with whom I have been in telegraphic communication on the subject, reports that he has pressed the Chinese Government to meet the British-held coupons without further delay.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any protests have been received from British subjects who owned Russian oil properties in connection with a recent purchase by an English company of petroleum from Russia?

The answer is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the late Sir Lee Stack's Report, of 6th May, 1923, regarding Abyssinia has been communicated to the League of Nations?

I assume that the hon. Member refers to Sir Lee Stack's Report on the Sudan in 1922 (Command Paper 1950 of 1923). If so, the reply is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the views of the Lyons Clamber of Commerce on the new silk duties have been dis- cussed with the French Government in its relation to the settlement of the French debt?

:The answer is in the negative.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much of the estimated revenue from the silk duties is estimated to come from silk; and how much from artificial silk?

:The estimates are:

		Full year.	1925–26.
		£	£
Natural silk	…	4,500,000	2,500,000
Artificial silk	…	2,500,000	1,500,000
Total	…	£7,000,000	£4,000,000

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer under which category of the financial statement leather gloves trimmed with silk and silk ribbons and laces come; and whether silk piece-goods containing pure or artificial silk come under tissues containing silk and tissues containing artificial silk or under articles not heretofore specified?

:Leather gloves trimmed with silk fall under the category of articles "not heretofore specified "; silk ribbon, silk lace and piece-goods fall under the category of tissues containing silk or artificial silk.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of people liable for Super-tax in the cities of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, respectively?

:I regret that this information is not available.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the number of persons in this country in receipt of an income of £5,000 or over per annum for each of the years from 1913 up to 1925?

:The number of persons who were assessed to Super-tax on an income of £5,000 or over for the years 1913-14 to 1923-24 inclusive is shown in the following table. Details for the year 1924-25 are not yet available.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1918, with reference to the assessment on the basis of a three years' average of Income Tax under Case V of Schedule D, Rule I, in respect of income arising from stocks and shares in foreign countries, are in practice rendered nugatory by the instructions given by the Board of Inland Revenue to bankers and others to deduct Income Tax to the full extent when cashing dividends arising from such stocks and shares, and by the refusal of the Board to have such Income Tax charge afterwards adjusted to the average of three years; and what steps he proposes to take so as to ensure that the taxpayer will receive the benefit conferred upon him by Rule I of Case V of the said Act?

Dividends, etc., of a foreign or Colonial company which are entrusted to a person in this country for payment are, by virtue of Rule 7 of the miscellaneous rules of Schedule D of the Income Tax Act, 1918, chargeable by reference to the provisions of Schedule C as indicated in paragraph 2 of that Rule, and not, therefore, upon a three years' average under Case V of Schedule D.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer which ex-Lord Chancellors are at present drawing a pension, and what is the amount of the pension in each case?

:Lord Haldane, £5,000 per annum; Lord Buckmaster, £5,000 per annum.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the efficiency of the telephone services in the Oxford area; whether the work of relaying the telephone lines will soon be completed; and what steps can be taken forthwith to improve the trunk line services?

:The condition of the telephone service at Oxford has already been the subject of inquiry. Pending the completion of the new automatic exchange which it is hoped to bring into operation early next year, it was necessary as a temporary expedient to add to the equipment of the present exchange. Unfortunately, the progress of this work caused a number of electrical faults on the old equipment which greatly hampered the operators in their duties. The position has greatly improved with the completion of the work. As regards trunk service, the provision of additional trunk outlets from Oxford is in hand, and when these are brought into use the trunk service should be quite up to standard.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the total cost of telegrams and telephones, respectively, in Government Departments?

:The total expenditure by Government Departments on telegrams in the financial year 1924-25 was approximately £111,727. Final figures in regard to the expenditure on telephones are not yet available, but the amount provided in the Estimates for 1924-25 was £376,400.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will give the index numbers of wholesale prices prepared by the Board of Trade for this country and by the Bureau of Labour Statistics for the United States for January, April, July and October for each of the years 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924?

The following statement shows for the periods specified the Board of Trade index numbers of wholesale prices in the United Kingdom, and the index numbers published by the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics, of wholesale prices in the United States of America:

Prices in 1913 = 100.
—			United Kingdom.	United States of America.
1919.
January	…	…	*	199
April	…	…	*	199
July	…	…	*	212
October	…	…	*	211
1920.
January	…	…	296.6	233
April	…	…	325.2	245
July	…	…	316.9	241
October	…	…	302.3	211
1921.
January	…	…	245.9	170
April	…	…	204.8	148
July	…	…	194.1	141
October	…	…	180.7	142
1922.
January	…	…	164.0	138
April	…	…	160.3	143
July	…	…	160.3	155
October	…	…	155.2	154
1923.
January	…	…	157.0	156
April	…	…	162.0	159
July	…	…	156.5	151
October	…	…	158.1	153
1924.
January	…	…	165.4	151
April	…	…	164.7	148
July	…	…	162.6	147
October	…	…	170.0	152
* The present series of Wholesale Prices Index Numbers prepared in the Board of Trade does not include calculations for the year 1919, the necessary data not being available.

asked the President of the Board of Trade how many kilowatt hours of electricity were developed in 1913 in this country, the United States of America, Germany, Belgium and Japan, respectively; and what are the corresponding figures for the years 1923 and 1924?

pursuant to his reply[OFFICIAL REPORT, 5th May, 1925; col. 731],supplied the following answer:.

Official information regarding the aggregate production of electrical energy in this country is not available for the year 1913 or any year near to it. In the year ended March, 1924, the Report of the Electricity Commission shows that 6,682 million kilowatt-hours were produced.

For the United States of America official information is available for the production in 1912 and in 1922 at central electric stations only. The electricity generated at such stations was 11,569 million kilowatt-hours in 1912 and 40,292 million kilowatt-hours in 1922.

I have no official information as to the production in the other countries named; but as regards Belgium, a Report to the Department of Overseas Trade states that there was a capacity of 456,000 kilowatts in 1923 in that country; and as to Japan, the Official Resume of Statistics gives 597,000 kilowatts as the capacity in 1913 and 1,715,000 kilowatts in 1922.

asked the Minister of Labour the nature of the replies received by the Unemployment Grants Committee in response to their recent Circular inviting boards of guardians to forward any schemes they might be able to propound which would assist in the diminution of unemployment during the coming spring, summer, and winter; and whether the Committee is acting without delay upon such applications for assistance as are received?

:The Circular referred to is dated 30th March, 1925, and asked local authorities, including boards of guardians, to submit particulars of works of public utility which might be put into operation during the winter of 1925-26 for the relief of unemployment. The Circular requests that the schemes be submitted to the Committee if possible by the 1st August, and in any event not later than the 1st September, 1925. No statement can yet be made as to the extent of the response to the Circular. I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend that the Committee will deal promptly and sympathetically with the schemes submitted.

asked the Minister of Labour if there are any statistics available to show the number of married women drawing unemployment insurance benefit whose husbands are at the same time employed, and the number of married men drawing benefit whose wives are employed; and what allowance is paid in respect of children in cases where one parent is employed and one unemployed?

:No such statistics are available. As regard the second part of the question, if both parents are living, the allowances for children are ordinarily paid only if the father is unemployed and drawing benefit, and they are not paid even to the father if the wife is employed and earning a substantial amount, with due regard to the number of children. The total number of women drawing allowances in respect of children last November was estimated at about 4,000. This number includes widows, and the number of married women drawing such allowances cannot be large. The allowances for children when paid are in all cases 2s. weekly per child.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of disabled ex-service men who have received limited benefit since 1st November, 1924, because they were prevented from seeking whole-time employment by reason of their disablement?

:I am not sure that I understand the hon. Member's question, but he may have in mind Subsection (4) of Section 1 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1923, which provided that in the case of disabled ex service men the requirement of genuinely seeking whole-time employment might be waived This requirement is no longer operative and there are no statistics such as the hon. Member desires.

asked the Minister of Labour whether the registers of unemployed persons signing at the Unemployment Exchanges contain the ages of those seeking employment; and, if so, will he state the number of men and women, respectively, over 65 and under 30 years of age?

:Statistics of the ages of persons registered at Employment Exchanges are not regularly compiled, but the results of a special analysis made in November, 1924, in respect of 1 per cent, of the claimants to benefit at that date, show that of the adult male claimants at that date 6.7 per cent. were of 65 years and over, and 33.5 per cent, of 18 and under 30 years. The corresponding percentages for females were 0.8 and 64.4 respectively. On this basis the number of claimants at the present time aged 65 years and upwards would be about 60,000 men and 1,600 women, and of 18 and under 30 years about 300,000 men and 125,000 women.

asked the Minister of Labour (1) the number of people who were prosecuted between 1st January, 1925, and 31st March, 1925, for defrauding the Employment Exchanges by receiving benefit to which they were not entitled; and whether he can state the number who were found guilty;(2) the number of people who were prosecuted, between 1st January, 1924, and 31st December, 1924, for defrauding the Employment Exchanges by receiving benefit to which they were not entitled: and whether he can state the number who were found guilty?

:The number of persons prosecuted between the 1st January, 1925, and 31st March, 1925, on charges of knowingly making false representations for the purpose of obtaining unemployment benefit was 573. Convictions were obtained in 499 cases, and in 41 cases the defendant was bound over or admonished. The corresponding figures for the whole year 1924 were 1,913 prosecutions, 1,590 convictions, and 188 cases in which the defendant was bound over or admonished.

asked the Minister of Labour whether the Regulations and Instructions issued from his Department to the officials of Employment Exchanges and to members of rota committees have proved sufficient to detect and prevent fraudulent abuse in the claiming and receiving of unemployment benefit?

:I am afraid that no Regulations or Instructions can eliminate all improper claims, but I am constantly endeavouring in the light of experience to make the Rules as adequate as possible for the purpose.

—	Years ended 31st March.
	1923.	1924.	1925.
			Estimated.
RECEIPTS.	£	£	£
Issues from the Consolidated Fund (Motor Taxation (Receipts).	11,772,043	14,090,044	15,563,000
Interest and Profit on Investments and Loans	353,219	351,321	504,000
Miscellaneous	151	364	100
	12,125,413	14,441,729	16,067,100
Exchequer Grants	205,000	—	—
Payments by Local Authorities on account of works carried out by the Ministry of Transport by direct contract.	472,341	128,634	100,000
Total Receipts	12,802,754	14,570,363	16,167,100
PAYMENTS.
Statutory Charges.
Administrative Expenses	125,305	110,134	131,000
Costs of Collection of Motor Taxation (Local Authorities)	288,734	275,294	288,000
Miscellaneous Charges	27,663	34,679	36,000
Net Payments under Grants for—
Maintenance and Improvement of Class I and Class II Roads (Classification Grants).	8,147,195	7,939,390	8,278,000
Other Improvements, etc., Schemes (all classes of roads), including new construction.	3,579,327	4,663,031	6,541,000
Miscellaneous Payments	110,779	48	15,000
	12,279,003	13,022,576	15,289,000
Add:—
Advances on Loan	328,083	123,492	118,000
Payments made for Direct Works in respect of—
Exchequer Contributions	572,451	109,398	65,000
Local Authorities' Contributions	546,068	102,806	157,000
Total Payments	13,725,605	13,358,272	15,629,000
Deduct:—
Loans repaid	258,828	229,208	249,000
Total Net Payments	13,466,777	13,129,064	15,380,000

asked the Minister of Transport the amounts of money credited to the Road Fund for the financial years 1922-23, 1923-24, and 1924-25; the amounts expended on 1st class, 2nd class, and unclassified roads each year; and the other principal items of expenditure of this fund?

:The receipts credited to the Road Fund and the payments out of the fund during the financial years 1922-23 and 1923-24 are summarised in the following table. The figures for the financial year 1924-25 are approximate and subject to adjustment:—

asked the Minister of Transport the total number of taximeter cabs licensed by the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis during the year 1924; and whether there is now a new standard of taximeter required before the licence is granted?

During the year 1924, 8,043 taximeter cabs were licensed. No new standard of taximeter has been required.