asked the Postmaster-General, the allocation of income and expenditure of the ordinary inland telegrams and wireless messages, including ship and shore services, for the 12 months ended to the last convenient date.

The income and expenditure, including provision for depreciation and interest on capital, of the inland telegraph service—including the ship-shore service—for the year ended 31st March, 1935 (the latest year for which complete figures are available) were as follows:—Income, £2,263,000; expenditure, £2,918,000.

asked the President of the Board of Trade, what is the amount of the import quota of sea fish, and how far has the quota been filled to date.

Total landings of foreign-caught sea-fish of the descriptions regulated by the Sea-Fishing Industry (Regulation of Landing) Order, 1933, amounted to 359,825 cwts. from 1st January to the 15th February, 1936, out of a maximum annual quantity of 2,426,595 cwts.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland the number of able-bodied persons in receipt of assistance through the Unemployment Assistance Board and the Public Assistance Committee on the 15th January 1936, or the last available date, within the Parliamentary division of Tradeston, Glasgow.

The number of able-bodied persons within the Parliamentary Division of Tradeston, Glasgow, in receipt of public assistance at 15th January, 1936, was 1,423 with 1,502 dependants. As regards persons in receipt of allowances from the Unemployment Assistance Board, I understand that the administra- tive areas of the Board are not conterminous with either Parliamentary divisions or the areas of Public Assistance Authorities, and the required figures for this Parliamentary division are accordingly not available.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, whether there is any official or organisation for liaison between his Department and the Board of Trade to co-ordinate policy and administration in regard to fishing vessels.

The officers of the two Departments maintain a close and continuous liaison and co-operation in all matters of common concern, but there is no formal machinery of liaison such as that mentioned.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, the most recent occasion on which consideration was given to the separation of the fisheries branch from the Ministry of Agriculture: and whether he can give a reference to any official documents on this subject.

This suggestion has been made on several occasions, and most recently in 1929, and I would refer the hon. Member to the replies given by the then Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to questions addressed to them on the 15th July and 18th December, 1929. I am sending the hon. Member copies of these replies: there are no other published official documents to which I can refer him.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, when framing the next Budget, he will bear in mind the promise made by his predecessor during the emergency Budget of 1931 to remove the extra tax on petrol as soon as the financial position returned to normal?

I would refer the hon. Member to the first part of the answer I gave yesterday in reply to a Question by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Wycombe (Sir A. Knox) and would add that all relevant considerations will be borne in mind when the Budget is being framed.

asked the Minister of Health whether, in future issues of Table A of the Registrar-General's Statistical Review, of comparative birth rates of principal countries, he will include figures relating to India and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics?

The table referred to (Table Q of the publication in question) seeks to provide reasonably comparable figures of the birth rates of different countries for which the information is regularly forthcoming. Figures for India are incomplete, those for British India alone being available. As regards the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, no figures appear to be issued by the Central Government and the figures available from the component parts of the Union are insufficient for the purpose.

asked the President of the Board of Education the estimated number of private schools in England; and how many of these have applied for inspection by the Board of Education?

My information with regard to the first part of the question is very incomplete, but I have no reason to dissent from the estimate of the Departmental Committee on private schools that the number of such schools in England and Wales is in the neighbourhood of 10,000. 1,068 private schools in England have applied for inspection by the Board of Education.

asked the President of the Board of Education, whether it will be possible this Session to introduce legislation to make registration and inspection compulsory for all private schools in accordance with the Report of the departmental committee on private schools?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer which I gave the hon. Member for South Shields (Mr. Ede) on 11th December last, of which I am sending him a copy.

asked the Minister of Labour, whether he is aware that fisherwomen in the Western Isles have suffered loss of unemployment benefit owing to the fact that they have not been given employment in Stornoway during the local fishing seasons in the past five years, and although some of them have qualified more fully for benefit during the mainland seasons than some who receive benefit; and whether he will regard their position as anomalous and make special provision for those cases?

The rules relating to payment of benefit to seasonal workers were revised last August in accordance with the recommendations of the Unemployment Insurance Statutory Committee, and I am not aware of any necessity for a further change in the law.

asked the Minister of Labour whether he will state the weekly amounts paid in unemployment benefit, expressed in sterling, for the various classes to which unemployed workers belong in Germany?

The rates of unemployment insurance benefit in Germany vary according to the wage class of the individual worker, the locality in which he lives, and the number of his dependants. A Table specifying in detail all the separate rates would occupy a large amount of space; but Table I below gives particulars of the rates payable, in each wage class, to persons with no dependants, and to those with two, four, and six dependants, respectively. Intermediate amounts are payable to persons with one, three, or five dependants. Different rates are paid in each of three groups of localities, graded on a cost of living basis, and the figures given in the Table show the lower and upper limits of these rates. The rates of unemployment benefit specified are payable for 20 weeks, subject, however, to a means test at the end of the first six weeks. After twenty weeks, the unemployed worker may receive "emergency benefit", but the payment of unemployment benefit after the first six weeks, and the subsequent payment of emergency benefit, are both governed by the proviso that the amount paid may not exceed that which the worker would receive, after a means test, as public assistance.

Table II shows the results of converting into sterling the rates shown in Table I, on the basis of the current official quotation for free reichsmarks, viz., approxi-

mately 12·3 reichsmarks equal £1. It should not be assumed, however, that the purchasing power, in terms of commodities of working-class consumption, of 12.3 reichsmarks expended in Germany is equal to that of £l expended in this country.