asked the Minister of Labour whether similar arrangements will be in operation this year to assist employers at holiday resorts to obtain from Employment Exchanges within a reasonable distance assistance in getting their seasonal staffs; and whether any new steps are being taken to bring to the notice of such employers the facilities provided by these exchanges?

The arrangements made last year are being continued and extended this year. In addition to the methods of publicity previously adopted, including Press advertisements and the display of posters, a new descriptive leaflet, of which I am sending my hon. Friend a copy, has been prepared for distribution to employers in holiday resorts.

asked the Minister of Labour if he can give an estimate of the annual sum required in order to pay maintenance to all unemployed workpeople, whether at present covered by unemployment insurance or not, on a non-contributory basis, at the weekly rate of £1 per adult male, 10s. for dependent wives, and 5s. for each child of school age?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the figures given in the Government Actuary's Report printed as Appendix No. 1 to the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education if he can supply a statement showing the scale of salaries paid to elementary teachers in this country in 1930, from 1931 to 1934, and the scale to be paid after 1st July, 1934, compared with the present salaries paid in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States of America?

A statement showing such information as is available at the board is being prepared, and my Noble Friend will send it to the hon. Member as soon as it is ready.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the desire of industrial civil servants that the Government should carry out at the earliest possible opportunity the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service with regard to a contributory pension scheme, he can now make any statement with regard to his intentions in this matter?

The Royal Commission on the Civil Service were in favour of the replacement of the existing non-contributory system of superannuation by three contributory pension schemes, A, B and C, carrying different rates of contributions and benefits, of which Scheme C was applicable to industrial and analogous classes. The Commission, however, recognised that the time was unfavourable for suggesting the acceptance by the State of additional liabilities, and that it might be necessary on financial grounds to postpone the introduction of Scheme C, even if the other two schemes were adopted. They suggested, further, in paragraph 778 of their report, that the question as affecting industrial staffs should be the subject of a separate investigation.It has been agreed between the official and staff sides of a joint committee of the National Whitley Council for the Administrative and Legal Departments of the Civil Service, not to recommend contributory schemes for the classes covered by the Commission's Schemes A and B; and in present circumstances it would not appear that any useful purpose would be served by initiating the separate investigation referred to by the Commission.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the approximate aggregate amounts of loans issued by the Public Works Loan Board and still outstanding for each particular rate of interest; and by what date those blocks of loans outstanding at rates over 5 per cent. will be disposed of under existing circumstances?

My hon. and gallant Friend will find the answer to the first part of his question very fully given in Appendix B to the fifty-eighth annual report of the Public Works Loan Board, 1932–33. The further details asked for in the second part of the question could not be ascertained without an elaborate analysis.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he is aware that the Prison Officers' Representative Board has made complaints that the boot repair allowance of 6s. per annum was inadequate; and whether, in making inquiries as to the repair costs, the board was consulted

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative and to the second part in the negative. The amount of the allowance referred to was fixed in 1931 after careful investigation and in consultation with prison governors, and has been the subject of discussion with the Prison Officers' Representative Board on several occasions; and on the information available it does not appear to be inadequate.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the number of temporary officers employed in the Scottish prisons, the number in the Borstal institution at Polmont, and in the criminal lunatic department at Perth; if the temporary officers so employed receive the extra 3s. weekly granted on the recommendation of the Stanhope Committee to permanent officers; if the records of the candidates for temporary work undergo the same strict scrutiny, as those of candidates for established posts, or if the labour exchange recommendation is accepted; and if the Department are prepared to establish the temporary officers who have served satisfactorily over a period of years?

There are 21 temporary officers in the Scottish Prison Service, of whom four are employed at Polmont Institution and four in the Criminal Lunatic Department, Perth. These officers are not eligible for special allowances payable to permanent officers. Different conditions apply to permanent and temporary appointment; and in accordance with the general practice in the case of temporary appointments as warder, attendant, messenger and in similar capacities, temporary prisons officers are engaged through the machinery of the Ministry of Labour and the National Association for Employment of Regular Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen. Applications from temporary officers who are eligible in terms of the regulations and otherwise suitable for establishment are favourably considered.

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give consideration to a proposal to send a trade delegation to Persia to inquire into the trade situation in that country and the possibility of increasing trade with the United Kingdom?

The Department of Overseas Trade are kept constantly informed of the economic position of Persia by the Commercial Secretary to His Majesty's Legation at Tehran. I do not consider that any useful purpose would be served by the despatch of a trade delegation to that country at present.

asked the Minister of Health whether he has yet considered the resolutions recently passed by the insurance committee for the county of Kent, copies of which have been sent to him, that, in order to secure to boys and girls entering employment a continuance of medical supervision, similar provisions in regard to age of entry should be made in respect of national health insurance as are made in the proposed new unemployment legislation, which seeks to adjust the minimum age of entry into unemployment insurance with the school-leaving age, and the school medical record in respect of such children should be made available for incorporation in the medical records provided in connection with medical benefit; and whether he has any statement to make?

The resolutions in question have just come before me. The subject, which involves administrative and financial considerations of great complexity, shall receive my careful attention.