asked the Lord Privy Seal whether he is yet in a position to announce the names of the members of the Advisory Council of the Bankers' Industrial Development Company, Limited; and, if not, when he expects to be in a position to do so?

I hope to be in a position to announce the names of the members of the Advisory Council in a few days' time.

asked the Lord Privy Seal whether he has received a copy of a resolution passed by the Plymouth City Council urging that, in view of the problem of unemployment existing in the neighbourhood, every facility and encouragement should be provided to enable operations bearing on the suggested establishment of the new industry on the Tamar in connection with tin alluvials to be commenced at an early date; and whether he proposes to take any steps in the matter?

I am making inquiries into this matter.

asked the Minister of Labour the number of men and women, respectively, on the unemployment registers in the Willesden area who have received written directions from officers of the Employment Exchanges with a view to assisting them to find suitable employment; and what percentage of those receiving unemployment benefit in that area this number represents?

I regret that statistics giving the information desired are not available.

asked the Attorney-General on how many occasions and for what periods of time on each occasion the Parliamentary journalist was interviewed by police officials for the purpose of asking him to give the source of his information respecting the decision to arrest Gandhi?

On two occasions. The first interview, including the writing out and signature of a statement, lasted about an hour and a-half. The second interview, including the preparation of a further statement, lasted about two hours, but about one hour of this time was taken up by the journalist telephoning to other persons concerned.

asked the Attorney-General whether, since the passing of the Official Secrets Act, 1920, there have been occasions, other than the recent one, on which Parliamentary journalists have been subjected to police interrogation arising out of the publication of information relating to decisions of the Cabinet?

I am informed that the provisions of Section 6 of the Act have been put into operation on several occasions, and that on at least one such occasion the investigations were concerned with disclosures of Cabinet information, but I have no information enabling me to say who was interrogated.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in stamping documents for revenue purposes, the Revenue Department makes any record of the contents of such documents, many of which contain valuable considerations, which on maturity, in the absence of such valuable considerations being known to the inspector of taxes for the district in which the beneficiaries reside, it is optional on the part of a beneficiary to enter as income derived in the income returns, with a consequent loss to revenue?

No action of this kind is taken. I may add that in the opinion of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue the value for Income Tax purposes of such information as might be gained by recording the contents of instruments presented for stamping would not justify such a departure. I would remind my hon. Friend that the Income Tax Acts require any person on whom a form is served for the purpose to make a true and correct return of all the sources of his income and of the amount derived from each source.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that brokers and dealers in stocks and shares are permitted by the Revenue Department to issue vouchers for reclaim of tax deducted at source to buyers of stocks and shares cum dividend, and that the sellers of the same stocks or shares receiving the company's dividend warrant with voucher attached for reclaim of tax deducted at source are able without encumbrance to present such voucher for reclaim of the same tax deducted at source, thus duplicating the claims made upon the Revenue Department, he will consider instructing the Revenue Department to cancel the arrangement for brokers and dealers to issue such vouchers and authorise them to demand the original company's voucher issued to the seller and authorise brokers and dealers to endorse such company's vouchers for reclaim of tax in favour of the buyer, thereby eliminating the possibility of fraud on the Revenue Department?

I fear that my hon. Friend's suggestion is not practicable.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of cases in which the Inland Revenue Department have taken legal action to recover tax less than £1 in value, 10s. in value, and 5s. in value, respectively, within the last 12 months; and how much of such outstanding taxation has actually been collected?

This information is not available, and could not be obtained without a disproportionate expenditure of time and labour.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the cash value of the existing social services to a family of a man and his wife and three children all of school age when such family takes advantage of all of them?

Owing to the great variety of individual circumstances, I do not think it possible to give any average figure of the kind suggested which would be of any value and which would not indeed be misleading. I would, however, direct the attention of the hon. Member to the Return on Public Social Services last laid before the House on 29th April, 1929 (House of Commons Paper No. 101), from which it, will be seen that expenditure under all the services there included amounted to £376,000,000 in the latest available year, of which over £266,000,000 were met from Parliamentary Votes and Grants and local rates, the balance being provided from a variety of sources in which contributions by employers and workers under the national insurance schemes predominate. The number of persons benefiting by the expenditure under the several heads is given in column (15) of this return. I should, however, point out that even from these figures it is impossible to deduce a figure which could properly be regarded as representative of any average individual case.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, as representing His Majesty's Paymaster - General, whether the additional payment of £100 per annum made to one of the principal clerks of the Paymaster-General's office for acting in the absence of the Assistant-Paymaster-General is made only to cover the period when the Assistant-Paymaster-General is absent on leave; and, if so, can he state the amount of leave to which this officer is entitled during the year?

The allowance in question takes account not only of the principal clerk's responsibility for acting in the absence of the Assistant Paymaster-General but of certain duties discharged by him which do not fall upon the other principal clerks. I am not aware of the association of any explicit rule in the matter with the post of Assistant-Paymaster-General since its origin in 1836.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the estimated expenditure for the year 1928–29 upon the minor self-balancing items now excluded from the national accounts, namely, sale of fee stamps, teachers' pension contributions, unemployment fund interest, and interest on other borrowings, and the realised expenditure on these items for the year 1029–30?

The estimated receipts in 1928 from fee stamps were £1,282,000 and from teachers pension contributions £5,000,000; the other items were not estimated in advance. I regret that I cannot at present give later figures for 1929–30 than those contained in my answer to the right hon. Gentleman's inquiry of 17th April.

asked the Minister of Health the actual cost of administering the Old Age Pensions Acts which come under his Department in the area covered by the city of Liverpool?

The information asked for is not available, as the records of pensioners are not arranged on a territorial basis.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs if he has any data indicating why emigration to Australia, New Zealand and British South Africa has decreased so much in recent years?

The decline in migration to Australia and New Zealand in recent years has been more marked in the case of assisted migrants than in the case of unassisted migrants who, subject to good health and character, are free to enter the Dominions without restrictions. The flow of assisted migrants must necessarily be regulated by the requirements of the respective Dominions, and in the case of Australia and New Zealand existing conditions are for the time unfavourable to a strong demand for assisted migration. The same causes no doubt tend to have a similar effect upon unassisted migration. No assisted passage scheme has been arranged with His Majesty's Government in the Union of South Africa, but migration to that Dominion has never attained high figures.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the quantities of cotton yarn and cloth re-imported to the United Kingdom after treatment abroad during the year 1929?

I regret that the information desired by my hon. Friend is not available.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any information regarding the new tariff about to be imposed by Germany which affects the export trade of Poland; and whether he has received information to the effect that as a result of this new tariff Poland has announced her intention of denouncing the Tariff Truce Convention?

Particulars of the increased customs duties imposed by the German law of 15th April, to which I assume the hon. Member refers, were published in the Board of Trade Journal of 8th May (page 643). With regard to the second part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to questions by the hon. Members for Moseley (Mr. Hannon) and Farnham (Mr. A. M. Samuel) on 6th May, a copy of which I am sending to him.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the proposal under the Consumers' Council Bill to fix prices, he proposes to obtain the wages of all foreign workmen engaged in the production of such commodities as may be affected by this Bill?

Should such information appear to the Council to be relevant to their inquiries, they will no doubt endeavour to obtain it.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in the price-fixing operations of the Consumers' Council, it is proposed to give full consideration to the representations of the Dominions and territories overseas which produce the commodities in respect of which prices may be fixed and, in that case, how such representations will be heard; whether they will be published; and what action will remain to those Dominions and territories which may object to the prices fixed?

Under the Bill the power, in certain circumstances, to fix prices is given to the Board of Trade, not to the Consumers' Council, and the Board of Trade would, as always, give most careful consideration to any representations they receive. For the rest, I would ask the hon. Member to await the discussions in Committee.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether there are any other countries, and, if so, which, where the price-fixing of commodities in ordinary use by the public is undertaken by the State, either directly or indirectly; and whether, if such is the case, he will state how the machinery of price-fixing operates?

My information is that there are arrangements for fixing maximum retail prices for certain essential commodities in France, Italy, Norway, Queensland, South Africa and Spain. The form of legislation and method of enforcement vary in the different countries, the powers being exercised in some cases by the central Government and in other by local authorities.

asked the Secretary for Mines whether the Fuel Research Board has been successful in finding more efficient or more smokeless methods than those now in force of heating working-class houses; and, if so, whether a report will be published giving practical recommendations that would be of use to local authorities and builders?

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research through its fuel research and building research organisations has conducted a large amount of research on the problems involved in the improvement of methods of domestic heating, and a number of reports have been published, of which I am sending the hon. Member a list. As regards eliminating the production of smoke, this is primarily a question of the use of electricity or smokeless fuels. Very extensive investigations have been carried out at the fuel reeearch station into the production of smokeless fuels, especially by improving methods of gas manufacture and the manufacture of coke suitable for domestic use. The best methods of heating in relation to any particular housing scheme depend so much on local conditions that it is not considered practicable at present to prepare a report which would contain practical recommendations suited to every case, but the Director of Fuel Research is always ready, if asked in any particular case, to give all assistance and information he can to local authorities and others connected with such schemes.

asked the Postmaster-General if he will consider reducing the number of subscribers required for a party line in rural areas to six?

Rural party lines are provided for not less than three and not more than 12 subscribers.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he has taken any steps recently to terminate contracts relating to the adverisement of alcoholic beverages in post offices; when this decision was taken; and what will be the loss of revenue to the Post Office?

Steps have been taken to terminate the contracts relating to the advertisement of alcoholic beverages in Post Office buildings and publications as soon as the provisions of current agreements admit. This decision was taken in July last. The loss of revenue when all these advertisements have disappeared will be about £4,000 a year.

asked the Secretary of State for India whether any protests have been received by him or the Government of India from public bodies or commercial organisations with reference to the use made by the police or military of their emergency powers in connection with the civil resistance movement; and, if so, what are the terms of the protests?

I cannot answer as to the Government of India, but I have myself received no such protests.

asked the Secretary of State for India whether any reports, and, if so, what, have been received by him or the Government of India from representative Indians or Indian organisations as to the action of police with regard to unarmed Indians in connection with the civil resistance movement?

I cannot answer as to the Government of India, The only protests of the kind which I have received are allegations of rough handling by the police of civil resisters at Kalikapur in Bengal and Viramgaum in the Bombay Presidency.