asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will consider in the next Finance Bill the possibility of granting some form of Income Tax relief in cases where the small taxable income of a member of a household is taken into account in assessing the needs of an able-bodied relative under the means test?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given on 21st December last to a similar suggestion by the hon. Member for Dudley (Mr. Joel).

asked the Secretary of State for India if he will give a statement of the deaths registered in British India as due to small-pox for the last 20 years for which statistics are available?

The following is the statement:Number of registered deaths from smallpox in British India for the last 20 years for which final figures are available.

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he can now take steps to have compiled the number of surviving pre-war Army pensioners and the total amount payable at present in respect of their pensions, in view of the fact that such figures are available in the case of teachers and police?

I regret that I cannot furnish the desired information, for the reason which I gave the hon. Member on 20th December last.

asked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs if he is now in a position to state who are to be the members of the Commission which is to be appointed to administer the affairs of Newfoundland?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which I gave on 30th January to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, East (Mr. Mander).

asked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs if any arrangements have been made for carrying on the research work previously undertaken by the Empire Marketing Board; if so, what is the cost of this work; and what proportion, if any, is borne by the industries concerned?

Arrangements are being made for the continuance of a substantial part of the research work hitherto financed from the Empire Marketing Fund. It is estimated that the cost of such research work in the financial year 1934–35 will reach £200,000, of which some £85,000 will be borne by other Governments of the Empire or by the institutions or industries concerned.

asked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that men employed temporarily by the Middlesbrough Corporation for grass-mowing in the corporation cemeteries have had to be classed as agricultural workers; that the corporation has been debarred from franking their insurance cards; that in consequence, the men have been disen- titled to receive benefit under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, which had they not accepted the work they would have continued to enjoy; and whether he is prepared to compensate the men concerned and to include provisions in the forthcoming legislation to prevent a continuance of such inequalities?

, pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 14th December, 1933, cols. 512–13; Vol. 284] supplied the following statement:I have made inquiry as I promised. I find that certain men have been temporarily employed solely to cut grass in the cemetery, and that their employment has, quite correctly, been regarded as uninsurable under the Unemployment Insurance Acts. Accordingly contributions under those Acts were not payable in respect of them. It does not appear in any of the cases referred to by the hon. Member which it has been possible to identify that the acceptance of the uninsurable work in question has had an adverse effect on the men's claims for unemployment benefit or transitional payments. The Unemployment Bill at present before the House contains proposals with regard to the insurance against unemployment of persons engaged in agriculture. There are also proposals in the Bill for dealing with cases where employment excepted from the scope of the Acts is so similar to included employment as to result in anomalies in the operation of the Acts.