asked the Secretary of State for Air what is the total cost of the headquarters medical organisation of the Royal Air Force; and whether he is taking steps to prevent overlapping between the Royal Air Force medical services and the medical services of the Navy arid Army?

The answer to the first part of the question is £13,026, including clerical staff. As regards the second part, the fullest use is made wherever possible of naval and military hospitals for Air Force patients. There are only three separate Air Force hospitals in this country, and of these two are situated at stations at which large numbers of Air Force personnel are concentrated, but which are remote from any hospitals administered by the other Services; the third is a small hospital with only 25 beds, primarily intended for officers suffering from flying disabilities. Conversely the existence of Air Force hospitals in Iraq and Palestine eliminates the need for maintaining British or Indian Army hospitals for the Imperial and local ground forces in those countries.To illustrate the extent to which effective co-ordination has been carried, I may say that during 1925 the admissions of personnel (including families) of the Royal Air Force to naval and military hospitals numbered 3,227, whilst during the same period there were upwards of 3,000 admissions of personnel of the Navy, the British and Indian Armies and local forces in Iraq and Palestine to Air Force hospitals.The possibility of further co-ordination as between the Air Force medical service and the medical services of the Navy and Army (as well as the Ministry of Pensions) is kept continually under review by a joint medical services committee set up in accordance with the recommendations made by the Committee presided over by my right hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen and announced in this House on 30th May, 1923. This joint committee advises in regard to:—

asked the Secretary of State for Air the total annual cost of the Air Ministry headquarters contracts organisation; the estimated division of this cost as between the specialised staff dealing with the purchase of technical equipment, such as aircraft and engines, and the staff engaged on placing contracts of a more general character; what steps are taken to secure co-ordination between the Air Ministry Contracts Department on the one hand and the corresponding organisations of the Admiralty and War Office on the other; and whether he has considered the advisability of the Royal Air Force purchasing stores of common pattern through the agency of these latter organisations?

The answer to the first and second parts of the question is £32,835, divisible as under between staff dealing with technical and staff dealing with other contract work:

					£
Technical	…	…	…	…	23,085
General	…	…	…	…	8,050
					£31,135

balance of £1,700 represents payment to the Admiralty for work done for the Air Ministry.As regards the third part of the question, co-ordination between the Air Ministry Contracts Department and the Contracts Departments of the Admiralty and War Office is secured, on general questions, by means of a Contracts Co-ordinating Committee consisting of the three Directors of Contracts, and on matters of detail, by direct and frequent inter-communication between the officials of the Contracts Departments. These methods of co-ordination are supplemented by the work of five technical co-ordinating committees, to which all questions of the co-ordination of designs and patterns are referred by the Contracts Co-ordinating Committee and which act in general in consultation with that Committee. The five technical committees deal with (1) foodstuffs, (2) clothing and textiles, (3) mechanical transport, (4) general stores, (5) medical and veterinary stores. The closest possible touch is thus maintained between the three Departments in regard both to contract policy and to the adoption of common standards, patterns and designs of supplies and stores for the three Services.As regards the last part of the question, the Royal Air Force already obtains a very large number of supplies and stores under contracts made by the other Departments, and generally Air Ministry policy is directed to agency contracts wherever appropriate and in other cases to synchronisation of tenders, utilisation of common specifications and co-operation in costing investigations.

asked the Secretary of State for Air the total cost of the headquarters chaplains' organisation of the Royal Air Force; and whether he is taking steps to prevent overlapping between the Royal Air Force chaplaincy service and the chaplaincy services of the Navy and Army?

As regards the first part of the question, the headquarters chaplains' organisation of the Royal Air Force at the Air Ministry consists of one officer and a typist, costing approximately £1,220 a year. As regards the second part, effective action has been taken to prevent overlapping with the assistance of the Chaplains' Co-ordinating Committee of the three Services. Air Force chaplains are only appointed to stations where there is no Naval or Army chaplain available in the vicinity who is able to undertake the work, whilst at small and remote stations not justifying the appointment of a chaplain arrangements are made for local ministers of religion to perform the necessary duties.

asked the Secretary of State for Air if he is aware that men of the Electrical Work Service Company, attached to the Royal Air Force at Weyhill, Andover, are being discharged, many of them with less than one year's service to complete, with a bounty of only £1 for each year of service; that these men, some of who are married and have families, are compelled to go on the Unemployment Exchange list in order to subsist; and whether he will consider the possibility of utilising the services of these men at other stations?

My hon. and gallant Friend has been misinformed. No men of the Electrical Services Works Company have been discharged, and no reason for their applying to the Unemployment Exchange has therefore arisen. The facts are that it has been decided to disband the company as an Air Force unit and to reconstitute it on a civilian basis, but the precise arrangements have not yet been finally settled. It is probable that most of the men already serving in the company who are suitably qualified will be taken on as civilians, or if they cannot be absorbed in this way, will be remustered to another Air Force trade to complete their engagements. Only the men who are unsuitable or unwilling to be dealt with in one or other of these ways will be discharged as surplus to requirements, receiving the gratuity of £1 for each year of service as provided by regulations. It is probable that most of the men will be absorbed or remustered and that the discharges will be few.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the Government of India has taken any steps to implement the resolution passed by the Legislative. Assembly in February, 1925, demanding an inquiry into the grievances of Indian railway subordinates by the Central Railway Advisory Council; and, if not, what is the reason for the delay?

The Government of India decided not to institute the inquiry proposed in the Resolution referred to by the hon. Member, but drew the attention of the Railway Administrations to the Debate upon it, with a view to the removal of any well-founded grievances.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of persons under the age of 18 who were on the Employment Exchange registers in Great Britain at the last convenient date; will he give the figures for each sex separately; and will he give the figures separately appertaining to the Walworth Road Exchange?

There were on the registers of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain at 5th April, 26,700 boys and 29,500 girls under the age of 18. The corresponding numbers for the Borough Employment Exchange were 210 boys and 396 girls.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of persons in the borough of Southwark registered at the Walworth Road Exchange as unemployed at the last known date; whether he can give any information as to the number of persons working short time in this borough; and whether he can give the estimated number of unemployed not on the register of the Walworth Road Employment Exchange for the borough of Southwark?

The only figures I can give are those for the live register at the Borough Employment Exchange, the area of which covers principally the borough of Southwark, but includes parts of other boroughs as well. At 22nd March there were on the registers of the Borough Employment Exchange 7,602 persons, including 179 who were temporarily stopped from the service of their employers. The latter include those working short time so far as they are registered.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of centres which have been established for the training of prospective settlers overseas, where they are situated and the number in each, whether any more such training centres will be established in the near future, and, if so, whether any will be in the counties of Lancashire or Cheshire?

Two centres, one at Claydon near Ipswich and the other at Weeting, near Brandon, Norfolk, have been established for the training of unemployed young men with a view to oversea employment. 102 intending settlers are at present in training at Claydon and 75 at Weeting. The scheme is an experiment, and it is not at present proposed to provide additional centres. Arrangements are in hand, however, for somewhat increasing the accommodation at the Weeting centre.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether the Ordnance Survey Department have employed qualified civil air organisations for survey work in this country; and, if so, whether he will make a statement as to the utility and cost of the work as compared with ground survey, the improvements in efficiency and cost which the Government's survey and air advisers consider may be anticipated as the result of increased experience and use of aircraft for survey purposes, and the changes thereby indicated as desirable in future years in the permanent staff of the Survey Department?

The Ordnance Survey have employed a civil firm to take air photographs of a certain area. The object is experimental, to determine what would be the value of air survey in the revision of the maps of the country. As the experiment is still in progress, and is not likely to be concluded for at least six months, it is too early yet to form any opinion as to the results.

—		Portsmouth.	Devonport.	Chatham.	Sheerness	Pembroke.	Rosyth.
				Valuation.
		£	£	£	£	£	£
1923–24	…	85,577	70,225	27,984	16,863	7,185	34,933
1924–25	…	85,577	70,225	27,984	16,863	8,512	36,391
1925–20	…	85,577	73,524	27,984	16,863	8,512	36,391
				Contribution to the Rates.
1923–24	…	41,998	46,817	17,589	11,363	5,829	12,564
1924–25	…	41,380	44,476	17,123	10,806	7,107	13,386
1925–26	…	41,380	49,628	18,314	10,524	7,004	14,110

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can state, approximately, the amount of Government securities held by companies, corporations, the National Debt Commissioners, the Post Office Savings Bank, and other public Departments or Commissioners?

My predecessor gave an estimate of the amount held by Government Departments on 31st March, 1925, in a reply to a question by the hon. Member for Ilford (Sir P. Wise) on 15th July last, of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy. I regret that later information as regards Government Departments is not available. I have no information as regards companies and corporations.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can now

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the valuation of the Royal Dockyards for the years 1923–24, 1924–25, and 1925–26; and the annual contribution to local rates in respect of these during these years?

The figures asked for in the hon. Member's question are as follow:state the expenditure during the last financial year incurred by the principal civil spending Departments?

Figures of the audited expenditure of Departments are not available till much Inter in the year. But on the basis of Exchequer issues the main items are as follow:

	£	£
Army	44,250,000
Navy	59,657,000
Air Force	15,470,000
		119,377,000
Education	46,038,000
Health	22,836,000
Labour	13,370,000
Ministry of Pensions	67,901,000
Old Age Pensions	26,199,000
Coal Industry Subvention	19,000,000
Other Civil Votes	47,919,000
		243,263,000
Customs and Excise	4,770,000
Inland Revenue	6,590,000
Post Office	53,950,000
		65,310,000
Total Issues for Supply Services		£427,950,000