asked the President of the Board of Education whether he will circularise those local authorities who have discontinued continuation or evening classes, urging them to restart such classes so as to give an opportunity for children from elementary schools to have further educational facilities granted to them pending reorganisation?

Only one local education authority has discontinued the provision of evening classes. The authority has already been urged to resume this branch of its activities, and I see no occasion for any general Circular.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of persons in receipt of a pension from the State who have held the rank of a Minister of the Crown, or officer in His Majesty's Army, Navy, or Air Force, or in the police forces, and who are now in receipt of a salary from State funds or from rates by reason of a fresh appointment, giving the total pensions and salaries paid, respectively?

This information is not available.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of men, established and hired, respectively, employed in Devonport Dockyard in the months of January and February, respectively?

The numbers of workpeople employed on the undermentioned dates were:

—	Established.	Hired.	Total.
31st January, 1931	2,897	7,555	10,452
21st February, 1931	2,889	7,601	10,490

The figures relate to Vote 8 (Shipbuilding and Shiprepairing) departments and are in correspondence with those given in reply to the hon. Member's Question on 30th January, 1931.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware of the depression in the rubber plantation industry in Malaya and other British dependencies, owing to over-production in the principal producing countries, whereby the revenues of both the Colonies affected and also the home Government are depreciated; and will he be prepared, in consultation with the various associations in this country connected with the industry and the High Commissioner who is now home on leave, to investigate the matter with a view to devising some scheme for the betterment of the industry?

My noble Friend is well aware of the extremely depressed state of the rubber industry and of the deplorable effects on those engaged in the industry and he has consulted the High Commissioner for the Malay States on the subject: but he regrets that the Government cannot see its way to initiate any scheme. If, however, the producers in all the countries concerned can agree on a scheme which provides for a practi- cable planning of aggregate production in correspondence with world demand, my noble Friend will be prepared to give it careful consideration.

asked the Minister of Health the number of persons in

Date			Number of persons in receipt of—		Total.
			Institutional Relief (including casuals but excluding rate aided patients in mental hospitals).	Domiciliary Relief (excluding persons in receipt of domiciliary medical relief only).
31st January, 1931	…	…	575	5,420	5,995
21st February, 1931	…	…	575	5,592	6,167

The following statement shows the number of persons in receipt of poor relief in the City of Plymouth on Saturday, 31st January and 21st February, 1931, respectively.