asked the Secretary of State for War whether any Home regiment has had to leave Shanghai through sickness, and, if so, whether he can give any details?

No, Sir.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that the Hankow Agreement is involving heavy financial losses on British nationals; that, contrary to the announcement made, the management of the Concession is virtually passing into the hands of the Chinese, and that values have fallen very considerably; and what steps he proposes to take to restore confidence?

I understand that there has been a considerable fall in land values and in the quotations for municipal bonds and debentures. This must be attributed mainly to the uncertainty of the political situation in China, and it is hoped that the Hankow Agreement so far from contributing to the losses will prove the first step in a gradual restoration of confidence. The full text of the new regulations for the British Concession at Hankow has not yet been received, but I understand that the Concession will be administered by a Sino-British Council.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will furnish to the House the returns of arms and ammunition imported into China through the Chinese Customs in recent years; through what Furls they were imported; and whether any information is available as to the countries from which these arms and ammunition were sent?

The figures given in the following tables are drawn from the Chinese Maritime Customs Report on the Foreign Trade of China for 1925:

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many British, American and Japanese representatives, respectively, sit as members of the municipal council of the Shanghai International Settlement; and the reason given by Mr. Sakuragi, the Japanese representative, for tendering his resignation?

So far as I am aware, the composition of the Shanghai Municipal Council is still as described in the reply given to the hon. Member for Penistone (Mr. Rennie Smith) on 16th February, that except that Mr. Sakuragi has been replaced by another Japanese, Mr. T. Funatsu. I have no information as to the reasons for Mr. Sakuragi's resignation.

asked the Secretary of State, for Foreign Affairs the number of citizens of the United States of America in Shanghai; and whether the United States Government has given any reason for its non-co-operation in the military measures of His Majesty's Government in China?

I believe that there are between 2,000 and 3,000 United States citizens in Shanghai. It would not be proper for me to discuss the reasons on which other Governments have based the action they have seen fit to take in the present emergency in China, but the hon. Member must not assume that the Powers who have nationals resident in Shanghai are not co-operating for their protection.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he has any information to show whether the Government of the United States of America has come to any decision on the question of signing the second Opium Convention adopted at Geneva in 1925; and what the grounds are for such decision?

No, Sir. The United States Government has, however, been recently invited to define its position in the matter.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that, when an official receiver has obtained an order for the redirection of a debtor's correspondence by virtue of Section 24 of the Bankruptcy Act, communications to a debtor from his solicitor are not regarded as privileged, and are read and acted upon by official receivers, thus precluding a debtor from having any legal advice or assistance of a confidential nature, and that official receivers require, in such cases,, correspondence to be sent to them open to enable them to be cognisant of the contents, and then, and then only, will such communications be allowed to reach debtors; and whether he will see that the rule is relaxed?

Orders for the redirection of a debtor's correspondence are made with the object of enabling the official receiver or trustee to trace undisclosed assets, and it must be left to his discretion to decide which communications shall be forwarded to the debtor.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware of the incidence of local Customs tariffs levied upon the parcels and comforts despatched to the men of His Majesty's ships in the waters of certain Overseas Dominions; and whether he can take steps to ensure that His Majesty's ships are treated for this purpose as being in home waters?

So far as the Admiralty are aware parcels for men in His Majesty's ships are not subjected to local Customs tariffs in any Dominion except Australia. If my hon. and gallant Friend has any information to the contrary, I should be glad to receive it. I will in any case arrange for inquiry to be made of the Australian authorities on the question of the tariffs on parcels for His Majesty's ships in Australian waters.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of wireless messages that were despatched from the Admiralty to ships in His Majesty's Navy at sea for the 12 months ended to the last convenient date; and how many wireless messages were received direct at the Admiralty?

It is regretted that statistics on this point are not available, and the labour of preparing them would be prohibitive.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether the Committee now sitting on marking of agricultural produce will issue its Report on marking of eggs?

The application in respect of eggs is about to be referred to the Agricultural Produce Committee. The procedure to be followed by that Committee is indicated in Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Merchandise Marks Act, 1926, which require, among other things, that before any proceedings are taken on any Report made by the Committee, such Report shall be published and a copy laid before each House of Parliament. I would remind my hon. and gallant Friend that the Act requires that the reference of any application to the Committee shall be advertised, and that the inquiry shall not be begun by the Committee before the expiration of 28 days from the publication of such advertisement.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been drawn to the position of ex-service men who entered the service of the Inland Revenue and other Government Departments after the 12th January, 1925, many of whom are under notice to terminate their employment (temporarily withdrawn); and whether he will arrange that the notices shall be withdrawn and the disabled ex-service men given permanent employment, subject to an efficiency test, in the respective Government Departments in which they are at present employed?

The Memorandum on action to be taken in ac- cordance with, or as supplementary to, the Third Report of the Southborough Committee, which was agreed with the association recognised as representing ex-service men temporarily employed in the Civil Service, provides that selection for permanent non-pensionable status shall be limited to ex-service men employed in Government Departments, other than on a casual basis, at the date of the Memorandum, namely, 12th January, 1925, but that ex-service men then employed on a casual basis should also be eligible for the grant of similar status if they had had previous temporary service of a non-casual character. In accordance with paragraph 9 of the Memorandum of Agreement, ex-service men newly recruited for temporary service at dates

				Cash supplied for Sinking Fund.		Nominal amount of National Debt at end of year.
		Tax Reduction.	New Taxation.	Provided by Budget.	Derived from Surplus.
		£	£	£	£	£
1919–20	…	159,500,000	63,100,000	5,430,209	-326,201,000	7,831,744,300
					(Deficit).
1920–21	…	34,050,000	218,755,000	21,266,860	+230,556,000	7,585,409,690
1921–22	…	220,145,000	—	25,010,609	+45,693,000	7,676,295,109
1922–23	…	60,157,000	—	24,710,782	+101,516,000	7,772,396,508
1923–24	…	57,175,000	—	40,000,000	+48,329.000	7,680,623,353
1924–25	…	47,206,000	265,000	45,000,000	+3,659,000	7,646,371,788
1925–26	…	51,220,000	20,050,000	50,000,000	-14,038,000	7,615,915,749
					(Deficit).
1926–27	…	300,000	9,305,000	60,000,000	—	—

The figures of tax reduction and new taxation represent the effect for a full year of the tax changes made in the Budgets. The figure for tax reduction in 1921–22 allows £219 millions in respect of the disappearance of the Excess Profits Duty, £219 millions having been the yield of the Duty in the previous year. Excess Profits Duty arrears, however, continued for some time, yielding £30,452,000 in 1921–22. The figures for the nominal amount of the National Debt have, of course, been affected by conversion operations, and should not be taken as a true measure of the effective reduction of debt.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state for the years 1919–20, 1920–21, 1921–22, 1922–23, 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26 and 1926–27, respectively, the total tax reduction, the revenue from new taxation, the cash supplied for the Sinking Fund in repayment of the National Debt, and the total figure of the National Debt?

The figures are as follow:

asked the Home Secretary the number of orders of admission to visit Holloway, Brixton, Pentonville and Wormwood Scrubs Prisons that have been issued in the 12th months ended at the last convenient date?

During the 12 months ended 28th February last, orders were issued to visit the prisons named as follow:

Holloway	22
Brixton	15
Pentonville	23
Wormwood Scrubs	26