asked the Postmaster-General if, with reference to the estimated profit of the Beam services from this country, namely, £500,000 for the current year, he will give the latest information of the financial results of the working of the Beam services by the Post Office and of the Post Office operated cables, showing separately the latest available figures of the profit arising in each case?

An estimate of current and future profits whether for the wireless or the cable services must depend to a considerable extent upon assumptions, and two of the four Imperial beam services have been in operation less than a year. While, therefore, I am able to say that an official estimate of the yield of the Beam services to the British Exchequer during the current year would be much less than £500,000, I doubt whether it would be in the public interest at the present time to attempt an exact forecast.

asked the Postmaster-General whether preference is given to ex-soldiers who have left the present Army as against ex-service men who participated in the War, in connection with any employment available in his Department; if so, in what capacity these men are employed; and for what reason?

In selecting ex-service candidates for permanent full-time Post Office employment, preference is given to the more seriously disabled men, i.e., those in receipt of a disability pension of not less than 30 per cent., but within both categories of "disabled" and "able-bodied" men, ex-Regulars with War service are given preference over those who enlisted for the duration of the War only, while the latter are given preference over ex-Regulars who enlisted after the Armistice. The majority of ex-service men are employed as postmen or in a similar subordinate grade.

asked the Postmaster-General what general assistance the Post Office is giving to the Empire Marketing Board; and whether he has in contemplation any additional assistance?

I am not sure what form of assistance my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind. In conformity with the general policy of the Government, my Department, in placing contracts, gives preference to Empire products. Any request received from the Empire Marketing Board would be sympathetically considered.

asked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department, in view of the fact that Ceylon levies duties on our depressed industries of cotton piece goods, machinery, iron, and steel, whether any recent attempt has been made to obtain preferential treatment in return for the preference granted to the Ceylon tea industry in the British market?

I have been asked to answer this question. The question of the grant of preferential tariff treatment to British goods imported into Ceylon was last discussed in the Legislative Council in 1921. I would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the answer which I gave to a question asked in this House on 22nd March, 1926, in which I stated that the question of granting preference to British goods had been discussed by the Legislative Council of Ceylon a few years previously to that date and had been rejected, and that I was not then prepared to reopen the matter. The same conditions hold good at the present time.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any statistics that. will show the greatest number of persons in Scotland w ho are in receipt of relief, excluding casuals, on any one day during the winter months of 1927 or 1928 or at the last convenient winter date?

No weekly returns of the numbers of poor in Scotland are submitted to the Scottish Board of Health. The latest winter figures available are those at 15th January, 1928. At that date there were (exclusive of casuals) 240,392 persons in receipt of relief in. Scotland. This figure includes all classes of poor, 105,290 being destitute able-bodied unemployed. The number of lunatic poor at 15th January, 1928, cannot be stated separately, but the number of this class at 15th May, 1927, was 18,322 and the figure does not vary to any appreciable degree from year to year.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has received any complaints about the casual ward at Thame, in particular on the ground that no bath, no shirts and no washing facilities are provided; that clothes are taken into the sleeping place without any attempt at cleansing; that there is no partition between the sleepers; that no mattress or pillow are provided; and that a large number of men are bolted in each room together with no light after 8 p,m.; and whether he is taking steps to bring this ward up to the standard laid down by his Department?

My right hon. Friend has received no complaints from casuals about this ward, but the reports of in- spectors of my Department and of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxford Joint Vagrancy Committee have drawn attention to certain of the defects to which the hon. Member refers. The joint committee and the guardians and officers of my Department are in consultation as to the improvement of the administration in these wards.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has received any requests from vagrancy committees or boards of guardians requesting permission to give she able-bodied inmates' dietary to casuals where such committees or boards of guardians consider it desirable; and whether he will give favourable attention to this request?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. My right hon. Friend is satisfied that much of the difficulties at present attending the administration of the relief of the casual poor arises from lack of uniformity in the observance of the provisions contained in the Casual Poor (Relief) Order, 1925, and he is accordingly unable to contemplate the introduction of new variations from those provisions. My right hon. Friend is advised that the dietary contemplated by the Order is sufficient for the maintenance of normal health and strength.

asked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that in Wallingford casual ward men are obliged to sleep herded together on the floor without beds, hammocks, or partitions of any kind, and will he issue Regulations enforcing the proper standard of sleeping accommodation for the casuals?

There has been a steady increase in the number of tramps using this casual ward. The wards have been twice extended daring the past five years, and further proposals for extension are now under consideration.

asked the Minister of Transport what are the intentions entertained as to the temporary barriers and poles used to block up roadways abandoned as a consequence of the roundabout system where it is in operation; when alterations of a permanent character will be made; and what form they will take?

The only place where temporary barriers and poles are now used to block up roadways abandoned in consequence of "roundabout" systems of traffic working is Sloane Square. The re-designing of the central area is a matter primarily for the Chelsea Metropolitan Borough Council, who, having regard to the importance of the site, have invited suggestions for alternative schemes.

asked the Minister of Transport the mileage of Class 1 and Class 2 highways, respectively, and of the footpaths alongside them?

At the beginning of the present financial year the length of Class 1 roads in Great Britain was 25,345 miles, and of Class 2 roads 15,794 miles. I have no record of the mileage of footways.