asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number and estimated cost during the current financial year of persons employed at executive

Established Writing Assistants employed in Government Departments, 1921–1930.
Department.	Approximate numbers employed on 1st April in the years:
	1921.	1922.	1923.	1924.	1925.	1926.	1927.	1928.	1929.	1930.
Admiralty	—	34	51	81	88	104	93	96	105	118
Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of.	—	39	40	37	38	39	35	31	35	46
Air Ministry	—	—	10	10	7	17	18	18	16	14
Customs and Excise	—	8	8	22	22	31	29	34	31	12
Education, Board of	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	30
Exchequer and Audit Department.	—	—	—	—	—	11	11	11	11	11
Foreign Office	—	—	—	—	—	2	2	2	2	1
Health, Ministry of (England and Wales).	192	276	244	243	240	386	475	642	687	1,003
Health, Department of (Scotland).	67	60	61	58	58	62	73	75	78	101
Home Office	—	7	13	24	22	31	33	33	33	33
Inland Revenue	—	173	343	292	300	381	378	383	508	550
Labour, Ministry of	323	418	340	409	354	408	389	364	397	397
Paymaster General	—	20	28	29	28	27	28	31	39	47
Pensions, Ministry of	—	419	390	381	326	507	447	406	388	359
Post Office	1,693	1,906	2,021	2,491	2,464	2,410	2,513	2,596	2,624	2,709
Public Trustee	41	44	43	46	44	44	46	45	47	49
Registrar General (England).	—	17	22	34	34	36	37	40	43	44
Trade, Board of	—	9	10	37	10	66	76	77	78	83
Transport, Ministry of	—	—	—	—	—	4	6	7	10	14
Other Departments	—	9	10	10	11	27	24	19	22	20
Total	2,316	3,439	3,634	4,204	4,076	4,593	4,713	4,910	5,154	5,641

I regret that this information is not available, and, in the circumstances, I hope that my hon. and gallant Friend will agree that the expenditure of time and labour required to extract it would not be justified.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the number of established writing assistants, copying typists, and shorthand typists employed in the Civil Service in each of the years 1921–30, inclusive, Department by Department?

The information desired is as follows:

Approximate numbers of established shorthand Typists and Typists employed in Government Departments on 1st April in each of the years 1928,1929 and 1930.
(Similar information for the years 1921–1927 is not available.)
Department.	Established Shorthand Typists.			Established Typists.
	1 April,1928.	1 April, 1929.*	1 April, 1930.*	1 April, 1928.	1 April, 1929.†	1 April, 1930.†
Admiralty	99	107	100	92	110	131
Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of	41	42	39	31	35	37
Agriculture, Board of (Scotland)	11	10	10	8	9	9
Air Ministry	52	56	54	50	51	49
Charity Commission	1	2	2	7	8	10
Colonial and Dominions Offices	14	25	23	29	32	33
County Courts Department	2	2	2	—	71	90
Customs and Excise	8	8	8	25	28	32
Education, Board of	24	23	21	45	45	42
Foreign Office	17	17	13	35	40	46
Forestry Commission	7	10	11	4	5	4
Friendly Societies Reg.	2	3	—	7	5	10
Health, Ministry of (England and Wales)	76	73	72	76	79	124
Health, Department of (Scotland)	18	20	20	12	12	13
Home Office	28	28	28	14	15	13
India Office	23	20	18	23	21	25
Inland Revenue	660	696	703	150	179	199
Labour, Ministry of	119	113	121	116	125	131
Land Registry	3	3	1	48	34	36
Mines	12	17	15	8	9	9
National Insurance Audit Department	6	5	7	16	18	21
Overseas Trade, Department of	14	19	15	5	7	5
Pensions, Ministry of	57	55	52	75	78	76
Post Office	304	296	278	395	422	461
Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor.	13	13	10	6	11	10
Public Trustee	31	30	31	28	31	32
Registrar General (England)	6	6	6	22	20	19
Scientific and Industrial Research, Department of.	14	15	15	12	22	23
Scottish Legal Offices	4	14	19	4	103	110
Stationery Office	6	5	3	44	44	44
Supreme Court of Judicature	10	9	9	22	45	50
Trade, Board of	63	87	91	80	93	99
Transport, Ministry of	26	26	26	15	14	15
Treasury and Subordinate Departments	17	22	24	18	18	22
War Office	38	38	35	61	64	66
Works, Office of	40	39	40	43	52	51
Other Departments	51	58	55	97	61	69
TOTALS	1,917	2,012	1,977	1,723	2,016	2,216
* Including Clerk Shorthand Typists
†Including Clerk Typists.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the number of writing assistants, typists, shorthand-typists, and P-class clerks, respectively, promoted to the clerical class, and the number of clerical officers promoted to the executive and higher clerical classes, respectively, in the period 1st April, 1930, to 31st March, 1931?

The information desired is as follows:

Approximate number of promotions made or authorised during the period 1st April, 1930, to 31st March, 1931.
From	To General Clerical Class.	To Higher Clerical Class.	To Junior Executive Class.
Writing Assistant	240	—	—
Established Typist	26	—	—
Established Shorthand Typist	61	—	—
"P" Class Clerk	259	—	—
Junior Clerical Officer (General Clerical Class).	—	224*	39†
* Includes acting promotions.
† Excludes promotions to Departmental Executive grades.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether any of the repayments of advances made to beet-sugar factory companies under the Trade Facilities Acts, 1921 to 1926, are in arrear, and, if so, to what amount; and what is the amount of those advances which has been written off as irrecoverable?

Payment has been made by the Treasury of £541,980 in respect of principal and £3,266 in respect of interest on advances to beet-sugar factory companies guaranteed under the Trades Facilities Acts. Towards these payments £12,000 has so far been recovered, and of the remainder

Description.	Domestic Exports consigned to		Re-exports consigned to
	Netherlands.	Denmark.	Netherlands.	Denmark.
Feeding stuffs for animals—	Tons.	Tons	Tons.	Tons.
Cereal by-products	4,027	8,887	2	—
Oil seed cake and meal (except husk meal).	2,643	13,031	151	2,225
Hay	33	14	—	—
Feeding seeds	26	16	131	1
Other sorts—sweetened	379	1,483	—	—
Not sweetened	12,943	2,121	157	41

NOTE.—The above figures relate to items specifically enumerated in the trade returns under the classification of "Feeding-stuffs for Animals" and do not take into account oats, maize, etc., which are partly used as feeding-stuffs for animals but in respect of which no estimate can be made of the proportion destined to be so used.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will indicate the nature and quantity of feeding stuffs exported to Holland and Denmark, respectively, in 1930?

The following table shows the quantity of the undermentioned descriptions of feeding stuffs for animals exported from the United Kingdom during the year 1930 and registered as consigned to the Netherlands and Denmark (including the Faroe Islands), respectively.