asked the Secretary of State for War the reason for the difference of £550,000 in the additional cost of the reconstruction of Catterick Camp and the original estimate of £890,000?

A full statement of the causes of the increase in the original provisional estimate was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee, and will, I believe, be printed as an Appendix to their Report, which has just been rendered.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty how many armament firms shared in the indirect subsidy of £90,000 per year for two years for which prices were arranged between the Admiralty and the armament firm or firms; and the firm or firms which received or shared this subsidy?

Five firms were included in the arrangement referred to, but the amount allowed in the price of the armour for the upkeep of plant and staff not fully used was based on the cost of upkeep of the productive capacity of three firms only. This was because the Admiralty estimated that the output of three firms would suffice to meet future naval requirements both in peace and in war, and the distribution of the orders amongst more than three was by desire of the firms themselves. The firms were:

Messrs. Armstrong Whitworth and Company, Limited.

Messrs. William Beardmore and Company, Limited.

Messrs. John Brown and Company, Limited.

Messrs. Cammell Laird and Company, Limited.

Messrs. Vickers, Limited.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of active service chief petty officers employed under the Director of Recruiting; and their names?

None.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, with regard to the Committee of Officers of the Treasury and the Board of Trade which has recently made inquiries into the administration of the Enemy Debts Department, if he will say to what purpose the inquiries were directed, when they began and whether they are still continuing, and what changes are expected from them?

The investigation to which the hon. Member refers is being carried out at my instigation by the Treasury Officer of Accounts and an officer of my Finance Branch. Their business is to review the book-keeping, accounting, and recording procedure of the Enemy Debts Department, to see whether any modifications or improvements are possible in order to expedite the conclusion of the task entrusted to this office. The investigation was decided upon in May last, but could not be begun until the 9th instant on account of illness, and it is still continuing. It is not possible to state what changes may be expected before the investigation has been completed.

asked the Minister of Labour, for each county borough and administrative county, the number of insured men unemployed in each month of the years 1922 to 1927, inclusive?

pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 11th July, 1928; col. 2260; Vol. 219] supplied the attached Table:

asked the Minister of Health how many women are on the staff of his Department in connection with, respectively, insurance duties, duties other than insurance, and the Board of Control?

The number of women employed in my Department and in the Board of Control is as follows:

Board of Control.

103, of whom 15 are employed at Headquarters and 88 in the State Institutions for Mental Defectives at Rampton and Warwick.

asked the Minister of Health the names of the local authorities which to-day have not submitted and operated schemes under the Blind Persons Act of 1920?

There are no such authorities.

the Minister of Health the estimated cost of augmenting the incomes of unemployable blind persons within the county borough of West Ham up to £1 per week, and the number of persons so affected?

I have no information enabling me to answer the first part of the question. There were 193 unemployable blind persons in the county borough on the 31st March, 1927.

asked the Minister of Health the number of blind men employed in the workshops within the county borough of West Ham; and the amount paid by the West Ham Borough Council in augmentation of wages and the average earnings per worker?

According to the most recent information available to my Department, there were 34 blind persons employed in the workshops at Pelby Road and Naples Street, of whom 21 were residents in West Ham. The borough council pay augmentation at a rate of 15s. per week to each of their workers. I have no information as to the average earnings per worker.

asked the Postmaster-General the number of kiosks which existed in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in December, 1926, and the present number shown under the headings of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; and whether he will give the relative figures of total receipts from call offices, including kiosks, for the same periods?

The number of call office kiosks at the 31st December, 1926, and the 31st March, 1928, were as follow:

The number of call offices (including kiosks) at the dates indicated were 21,493 and 24,054 respectively and the receipts were as follow:

Revenue figures are not yet available for a date later than March, 1928.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he will give figures showing the yearly average number of auxiliary postmen who were nominated exceptionally for appointments as established postmen in each of the years 1911, 1912, 1913, and 1920 to 1928, showing London and the provinces separately?

The figures for the years 1911–1913 are not readily available and could not be ascertained without considerable trouble. The figures for the years 1920–1927 and for the first quarter of 192 a8re as follow:

asked the Postmaster-General whether any Regulations have been issued that from 1st August all full stops, commas, colons, semi-colons, and other marks of punctuation are not to be transmitted in inland Press telegrams unless written out or ringed when they will be charged as one word; and whether it is also intended to apply this Regulation to ordinary telegrams?

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, if the phrase "other marks of punctuation" be understood to include only marks of interrogation and of exclamation. The answer to the second part is in the negative.