asked the Secretary of State for War the conditions agreed between the War Office and the Ministry of Transport for the issue of emergency permits, Army Form A. 2038, authorising soldiers to drive motor-vehicles on public roads in the course of their duty; whether he is aware that officers commanding units are still required to purchase licences for soldiers driving in the course of duty except in certain cases; and whether he will state the reasons for continuing a system which involves the transfer of 5s. in each instance from the Exchequer through the paymaster, the unit, and the county council, and back to the Exchequer, with much laborious accounting?

Army Form A. 2038 is issued to learner drivers and to drivers who are liable to be sent abroad within six months. The accounting processes involved are not so onerous as to make it desirable to abrogate the ordinary requirements of the law when licences are needed for longer periods.

asked the Secretary of State for War why numbers of fully-trained tradesmen in the Royal Engineers continue unemployed instead of being placed on defence and similar works for which in the same area civilians are being employed and paid, resulting in waste of public money?

I assume that my hon. and gallant Friend is referring to Royal Engineer units which have been reforming and re-equipping on return from France. These units have now all been allotted for duty at various stations and will have moved off in the course of the next few days.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT the names and addresses of the aliens who embarked on the "Arandora Star" and indicate those who are drowned and missing respectively?

I have been asked to reply. I hope that a complete list of names will be available in the course of the next two or three days, and, as the list will be a very long one, I think it will be better to place a copy in the Library.

asked the Home Secretary what steps can be taken by British firms who are either Government contractors or producing for the export trade, to safeguard from internment certain specialists or essential key men in their employ, who are enemy aliens, by birth, but by every known standard emphatically antagonistic to Nazidom and desirous of maintaining their work and loyalty for the British cause?

I have already given instruction to the police which I hope will prevent the internment of specialists or key workers engaged in connection with Government contracts or essential export trade. If in any individual case such a person should nevertheless be interned, it is open to his firm to make representations to the appropriate Government Department and I am always ready to consider the question of releasing any internee who is certified to me by a Government Department as willing and able to render services of importance to the community.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will consider the desirability of making an order to prohibit the registration of new clubs during the period of the war except with Home Office approval?

I have considered my hon. Friend's suggestion but I have no evidence before me which would justify an amendment of the existing law on these lines.

asked the Home Secretary whether the post of lady commandant of the women's refugee camp in the Isle of Man is on a voluntary basis or a paid appointment?

The appointment is a paid appointment, but the terms and conditions are not yet finally settled.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether, in respect of the Nunnery farm, adjoining the Spetchley Road, which has been bought by the Worcester Corporation, he will take some steps to ensure that this farm, which is derelict and covered with weed, is dealt with so as to eliminate any damage being caused to neighbouring farms by the unkempt state of this farm?

I am informed that although the Worcester corporation signed a contract for the purchase of this farm last November, the purchase has not yet been completed owing to the death of the owner. With the consent of the trustees for the estate, the corporation ploughed and cropped 48 acres of grassland. Some part of this land is infested with thistles and docks, and immediate action is being taken by the corporation to pull the docks and cut the thistles. The corporation have asked the Worcestershire War Agricultural Executive Committee to serve an order on the trustees to destroy the weeds growing on some other parts of the farm. Steps will be taken to ensure that the action is effective. I understand that the farm is not by any means derelict, and it is an exaggeration to say that it is covered with weed.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs the school-leaving age in each of the Dominions?

The school-leaving ages are as follow:

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs whether he is aware that the Ontario Deputy Minister of Health has distributed a pamphlet stating that children, on arrival in Toronto, will be detained from a week to 10 days whilst they undergo a tuberculin test, vaccination and the first dose of toxoid for diphtheria; and whether, as this contradicts the statement in the British regulations that vaccination is compulsory only in South Africa, he will make this intention widely known to parents before they let their children go?

I am making inquiries of the Canadian Government and will communicate with the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will take steps to reduce the rate of interest charged by the clearing house banks to the Government oral other borrowers, in view of the fact that the maintenance of their interim dividend at pre-war heights indicates that the burden of their heavy expenditure has been evaded by the banks and is being carried by their customers?

No, Sir. As stated in the reply which the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave to my right hon. Friend the Member for East Edinburgh (Mr. Pethick-Lawrence), on 11th July, he is satisfied that the banks have not taken any advantage of the present emergency.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give the names of the Welsh vernacular newspapers which refused to print the war loan advertisement; whether any reasons were given; and what action has or is being taken?

The only case of which I am aware is that of "Y Goleaud," the weekly organ of the Calvinistic Methodist or Presbyterian Church of Wales. After publishing an advertise- ment in connection with war savings for some time, the paper asked to be excused. I do not propose to intervene.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury how many licences to drive a motor vehicle were issued during the years 1929 and 1939, respectively?

The number of motor vehicle driving licences issued in 1929 was approximately 2,687,000 and in 1939 4,857,000. The latter figure includes provisional licences issued to learners.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he is aware that, in certain provincial offices of his Department, the rates of pay agreed upon between the Government and the Civil Service trade unions are being withheld; and whether he will cause instructions to be issued to all food executive officers that all relevant agreements between the Government and trade unions are to be honoured?

Yes, Sir. There have been discussions with the staff interests concerned respecting the rates of pay at certain food offices where those adopted by the local authority, which have set the standard for the food office staff, are below the general Treasury rates. It is hoped that circumstances will permit of the resumption of these discussions in the course of a few weeks.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he will give examples of some of the principal rates and conditions of payment covering works managers, managers, salaried staff employés of clerical, typing and messenger grades in establishments under his control with regard to payment for overtime for work on Saturday afternoons and Sundays beyond the normal hours?

The rates and conditions of payment of overtime for Admiralty headquarters staff and for clerical and typing staff in outport establishments are the same as those universal throughout the Government Service. In a few establishments set up since the outbreak of war overtime is payable for time worked in excess of hours fixed by local agreement. Admiralty Works Managers and Managers are almost invariably Principal Officers who are not entitled to overtime payment. As the table of examples is long, I am sending the hon. Member a copy privately.

asked the Minister of Supply whether he proposes to appoint another special investigation officer in the place of Mr. T. S. Wilson, who was recently, appointed to another office?

Yes, Sir.

asked the Minister of Supply whether the controller of non-ferrous metals has given his services to the Ministry free of charge or whether he receives a fee from the British Metal Corporation for those services; and, if so, whether he will state the amount of that fee?

I have nothing to add to the reply which was given to my hon. Friend on 10th June, except that I have no information as to the fee the British Metal Corporation pays to its managing director, who is the controller of nonferrous metals.

asked the Minister of Supply if he will take steps to arrange with the Service Departments for the maximum possible use of leather from domestic hides far equipment, and in this way reduce our purchases of alternative materials from overseas?

Yes, Sir. Leather equipment will be provided for the Local Defence Volunteers.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware that men with specialised knowledge and experience of considerable potential value for shore appointments in the Navy are being rejected through failure to attain the high standard required in the eyesight test; whether for such shore appointments such high eyesight standard is necessary, and, in view of the consequent loss to the service under the present system and the national emergency and the need for placing men where they may be most useful, whether he will relax the standard of the eyesight test so as to permit the Navy to employ suitable persons for appointment to temporary commissions for service ashore?

The standard of vision required of a seagoing naval officer is relaxed in the case of officers required for specific shore appointments. If the hon. Member has some particular cases in mind perhaps he will let me have particulars in order that I may look into the matter.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food, whether he has considered the question of producing potato flour in this country to eke out the cereal product; where are any factories in the kingdom which are capable of doing this service; and are they now so employed?

This matter has been the subject of very full consideration. There are two factories now in existence, one at Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) and the other at Skelmersdale (Lancashire) which are capable of manufacturing this product, and four additional factories now in course of erection are being equipped with the necessary machinery for the purpose. The reply to the last part of my hon. and gallant Friend's Question is in the negative. At this season of the year there are no potatoes suitable for this form of processing.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of the actual or possible rise in retail prices of imported and other commodities purchased by natives without a corresponding rise either in wages or in raw materials sold by the natives, he will consider minimising the resultant hardship by effecting some means of stabilising those prices at a reasonable level?

The protection of Colonial populations as far as possible from the economic effects of war-time conditions is under constant consideration, but I fear that there would be insuperable practical difficulties in any general scheme of stabilisation of the prices of imports into the Colonial dependencies. Some increases are unfortunately inevitable in view of increased freight and manufacturing costs, but the Colonial authorities already have machinery which enables them to control prices in order to prevent undue profiteering.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether there is any Government-controlled school in Ceylon or elsewhere in the Colonial Empire authorised to give degrees of university standing?

Degrees are conferred by the Universities of Malta and Hong Kong, both of which receive financial assistance from the Government. No other state-aided institution in the Colonial Empire is competent to confer university degrees.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies the position of Hebrew residents in the British mandated territory of the Holy Land who have come from enemy countries, whether they are enemy subjects or British protected persons, especially those who have been admitted for permanent residence?

Jewish residents in Palestine who have acquired Palestinian citizenship are regarded as British protected persons. Immigrants who have not acquired Palestinian citizenship retain their original status, but the treatment accorded to them would depend upon the circumstances of each individual case.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that the five years' compulsory course of study in over 20 legal subjects at the Government Law School in Jerusalem is double the period and triple the work prescribed by the Law faculty of the University of London; and will he therefore authorise the Law Council of Jerusalem to grant the degree of Bachelor of Laws, LL.B., to its graduates?

I am not aware that the facts are as stated in the first part of the Question. As regards the second part, the Law Council in Palestine is not a body competent to award degrees nor is it within my power to authorise it to do so.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what information he has about proposals by the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the Turkish Government for the alteration in the control of the Dardanelles; and what are the nature of those proposals?

So far as my Noble Friend is aware, no proposals have been made by the Soviet Union to the Turkish Government regarding the control of the Dardanelles.

asked the Minister of Information whether he will cause to be published particulars and details of the uniforms and badges of officers and other ranks of all the Allied Forces who are now in the British Isles?

If there is a public demand for the publication of such particulars, I am confident that the Press will take steps to meet the demand.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aircraft Production whether he will arrange for financial compensation to poor people who may desire to offer aluminium domestic articles but who could not afford to replace them with articles of other metal; and whether he will requisition all aluminium articles now in wholesale stores or retail shops, and thus avoid the anomaly of such articles being purchased to replace similar articles?

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aircraft Production whether he will consider collecting all the aluminium number-plates on motor-cars, and also all aluminium cooking utensils, and substituting for them, respectively, number-plates and utensils of a less important metal?

The appeal for aluminium utensils was made in the belief that many members of the public would be glad voluntarily to surrender articles not essential for ordinary domestic purposes, but those who cannot afford replacements in other metals should confine their gifts to such articles as they can spare. The particular variety of aluminium normally used in the number-plates of motor-cars is not suitable for use in aircraft manufacture. As I said in reply to a Question yesterday, my Noble Friend will, if necessary, requisition stocks of aluminium goods in wholesale and retail stores.