asked the Secretary of State for Scotland the number of applicants who are still waiting for houses under the various Housing Acts?

I regret that the information asked for is not available. According to the programmes so far submitted to the Department of Health, local authorities estimate their requirements for the five years 1934 to 1938 as follows:

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many building societies have taken advantage of the Housing (Scotland) Act, 1933; and, in view of the failure of the Act to maintain the output of previous Acts, will the Government consider the advisability of having it withdrawn and replaced with new legislation?

Proposals submitted by one local authority for the erection of 260 houses under the guarantee provisions of the Act of 1933 have been approved, and it is understood that the same authority have further proposals under consideration. As regards the latter part of the question, I would refer to my reply given on this subject to the hon. Member on the 18th instant.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether any action is proposed or is under consideration by the Scottish Office to give greater powers to local authorities in Scotland within their area and so reduce the expenditure involved in having such matters considered and settled in London?

The hon. Member does not specify the matters in respect of which he considers that greater powers should be given to local authorities. As indicated in my reply of 13th March last to the hon. Member for South Edinburgh (Sir S. Chapman) the permanent heads of all Departments, with the exception of the Scottish Office, concerned with the administration of local government in Scotland are already located in Edinburgh and arrangements are being made to establish there at the earliest possible date a branch of the Scottish Office for the purpose of further facilitating the work of such administration, and thereby adding to the convenience of local authorities.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland the total number of persons in Scotland on able-bodied and poor relief as at May, 1934, compared with May, 1933; and what is responsible for the abnormal increase?

The numbers of persons, excluding dependants, in receipt of ordinary poor relief in Scotland at 15th May in the years 1933 and 1934 were 90,959 and 98,193, respectively, an increase of 7.9 per cent. The corresponding figures for persons in receipt of able-bodied relief were 43,348 and 72,338, respectively, an increase of 66.8 per cent. With regard to the latter part of the question, the hon. Member will see that there have been increases in both cases. As regards the ordinary poor, the cause of the increase would appear mainly to be the cumulative effect of the long continued industrial depression in exhausting resources available for the support in working-class families of non-able-bodied members of the family. With regard to the much greater increase of the able-bodied who are receiving relief, I am informed that 91 per cent. of this increase has occurred in Glasgow and Greenock, where the rates of relief were recently increased, involving the addition to the Poor Roll of persons whose unemployment insurance benefit and transitional payments are being supplemented.

asked the Secretary for Mines whether the part-time officers of the Petroleum Department have any employment for that part of their time which is not occupied by their official duties and, if so, what it is; what proportion of their time they devote to their official duties and what to their other duties, if any; and what emoluments they receive in respect of their official duties and of any other duties they may have?

The three officials referred to in my answer to a question by my noble Friend on 26th April, as giving part services to the Petroleum Department, are all established Civil servants employed full time in my Department, of which the Petroleum Department forms part. Some of the work of this Department is of a very responsible character. By combining that work with other duties, the services of more senior officials are obtained than would be justified by the volume of the work of the Petroleum Department alone. Their total annual emoluments are £2,650, of which it is estimated that £1,250 represents the time given to petroleum duties.

asked the Minister of Labour what are the hours of the normal week for the shipbuilding and engineering trades, respectively, recognised in Belgium, France, Germany, Russia, the United States of America and this country, respectively?

In Belgium and France there are statutory regulations limiting the normal working hours of workpeople employed in the shipbuilding and engineering trades to 48 a week. In special circumstances, e.g., in cases of breakdown or increased pressure of work, the regulations permit some extension of these hours, although in France, permission to work overtime in these trades to meet increased pressure of work is at present temporarily suspended in most districts. In Germany, the Statutes and Orders relating to hours of work limit the normal working time to eight hours a day, and 48 hours a week, subject to the provision that these hours may be extended by collective agreement between employers and workers, to a maximum of 10 a day and 60 a week. I am unable to say to what extent advantage has been taken of this provision in the past, or whether, in existing circumstances in Germany, the position in regard to permitted working hours has been materially altered. In all three countries, statutory provision is made for the extension of the weekly working hours beyond 48 in the case of particular classes of persons, e.g., those engaged upon intermittent or preparatory and complementary work, etc. In Russia, an Order, dated 21st June, 1932, provided that all permanently operating productive industrial under- takings should adopt a seven hour working day by 1st January, 1933. I am not in possession of information showing to what extent this Order is in operation in the shipbuilding and engineering industries; but, according to statistics officially published by the Soviet Government, 86.4 per cent. of the workpeople employed in the heavy industries in that country were working a seven-hour day at 1st July, 1932. In the United States of America, the normal weekly working hours fixed by the Codes of Fair Competition are 36 for the shipbuilding industry and, in general, 40 for the engineering industry. In Great Britain, the normal hours, as fixed by collective agreements between the organisations of employers and workpeople, are generally 47 a week, for day workers, in both industries.

asked the Secretary for Mines what was the amount of oil obtained from British coal by any process during 1931, 1932 and 1933; and what was the tonnage of coal involved for each respective year?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave on 21st February last to a similar question by my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Mr. Martin), of which I am sending him a copy. Since then, the figures for 1933 have been revised as follow:Crude benzol and other spirit, 49 million gallons.Creosote, 65 million gallons.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has received any information showing that National Savings stamps are being offered potential subscribers to newspapers and, if so, to what extent this practice prevails; and what is the attitude of his Department on the subject?

My attention has been called to an offer of this nature made by a newspaper in Bristol; so far as I am aware this is the only case in which National Savings stamps have been used by a newspaper for this purpose. As the stamps are on sale at all Post Offices, I am not in a position to control the use made of them nor am I in a position to say how far the scheme has conduced to the use of the stamps for the purchase of National Savings certificates or for opening a savings bank account. I do not, however, regard such a use of the savings stamps as desirable and if the practice develops it may be necessary to consider the question of imposing restrictions.