Written Answers
Air-Raid Precautions
asked the Home Secretary how many volunteers have presented themselves for air-raid precautions in Birkenhead and Liverpool, respectively, and how many instructors are being engaged in teaching them?
In Liverpool 10,115 volunteers have been enrolled for air-raid precaution services of all kinds and 28 instructors are training them. The corresponding figures for Birkenhead are 1,584 and 12.
Whale Oil (Government Purchases)
asked the Minister of Health in respect to the recent purchases of whale oil made by His Majesty's Government, whether it would have been possible to have purchased palm oil and coconut oil from West Africa, Malaya, and Ceylon instead of whale oil from Japan and Norway?
I have been asked to reply. The whale oil in question was purchased from United Kingdom sources and from Norway; no purchases were made from Japan. Whale oil is more suitable for storage than any alternative source of edible fat and was the only commodity of its kind which could be purchased without running the risk of an undue rise in price and of injury to normal users.
Unemployment (Pontypridd)
asked the Minister of Labour whether he will state the number of persons within the administrative area of the Pontypridd Employment Exchange who have received a reduction in unemployment assistance allowance by the liquidation of the standstill order for each
| Date, 1938. | Number of persons who on the dates shown in column (1) were in receipt of allowances which had been reduced under the arrangements for the transition from the Standstill otherwise than on account of personal earnings (b). | Number of persons who on review of their cases in the four (or five) weeks preceding the date shown in column (1) were given "Nil" determinations I on account of the liquidation I of Standstill arrangements or otherwise (c). | |||
| Column (1). | Column (2). | Column (3). | |||
| 28th January | … | … | … | 206 | 7 |
| 25th February | … | … | … | 217 | 9 |
| 25th March | … | … | … | 281 | 6 |
| 29th April | … | … | … | 634 | 12(5 Weeks) |
| NOTES.—(a) Information relating to Employment Exchange Areas is not available. The particulars in the table relate to the Unemployment Assistance Board's administrative area of Pontypridd which covers the Pontypridd and Taffs Well Exchange Areas. | |||||
| (b) A large proportion of individual cases in column (2) are included on more than one date. | |||||
| (c) It is not possible to distinguish between Nil determinations given in the process of liquidation and Nil determinations given in ordinary course. The figures in column (3) include therefore all "Nil" determinations given in the area during the period in question for whatever reason. | |||||
Royal Navy (Oil-Tanker Fleet)
asked the First Lord of the Admiralty what progress has been made in providing a reserve of antisubmarine and anti-aircraft equipment for the British oil-tanker fleet? month in 1938 to date, and the number of nil determinations?
pursuant to his reply(OFFICIAL REPORT, 5th May, 1938; column 1002, Volume 335), supplied the following statement:Information in the form desired by the hon. Member is not available but the following table gives certain particulars in respect of the Unemployment Assistance Board's administrative area of Pontypridd (
a).
I would refer the hon. Member to my answer of 4th May on the subject of equipment for ships of the merchant navy. The special importance of the British Oil Tanker Fleet has been taken into account in the preparations which are being made.