James asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he will publish, at the earliest convenient date and periodically thereafter, a table showing, by Ministries and age-groups, the number of medically fit men of military age, exclusive of established pre-war civil servants, employed in each Ministry?

No, Sir. The amount of work involved in compiling this table would be considerable and so far as I am aware no useful purpose would be served by undertaking it.

asked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the increase of juvenile delinquency, he will favourably consider claims for the deferment of calling-up of all probation officers?

It is open to local probation committees to make application for deferment of calling up of whole-time probation officers and in deciding whether to grant such deferment I act in close consultation with my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Home Affairs and the Secretary of State for Scotland.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will arrange for the employment of parties of members of the Women's Land Army under the control of county war agricultural executive committees?

I have consistently encouraged war agricultural executive committees to employ members of the Women's Land Army and over 3,000 members of the Women's Land Army are now in committee employment.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, in view of the present shortage of expert farm labour, what steps have been taken in the county of Kent to provide a communal or co-operative service of regular pruning and spraying for small orchards, the owners of which cannot afford to give them proper attention?

As regards a spraying service, I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the reply which I gave on 19th February to the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Mathers). A service scheme for pruning is under consideration by the county war agricultural executive committee.

asked the Minister of Aircraft Production whether, when the public subscribes a specific sum for the construction of specific aircraft, such aircraft is supplementary to the Government programme for the time being, or whether it means that the public finances some portion of such Government programme; and whether he can, for the public information, make a statement on the whole subject?

While no gifts of money, however generous, can increase an aircraft programme which is already the maximum possible from the production capacity available, such gifts are credited to the Vote of my Ministry and are applied to the construction of aircraft in accordance with the donors' wishes. The Ministry has already received over £16,000,000 in large and small amounts from contributors, many of whom are overseas and have chosen this convenient and generous way of helping the Empire's war effort and of paying tribute to the great and gallant achievements of the Royal Air Force and of the Fleet Air Arm.

asked the Minister of Labour whether he can give any approximate estimate of the number of persons in the building trade whose services have been made available by the imposition of the £100 limit on repair and demolition work in any premises; what proportion of these men so affected are now unemployed; and what special steps are being taken to ensure that they are absorbed into useful employment as they become available?

I have no means of making such an estimate. Such unemployment as exists in the building trades, except that occasioned by stress of weather or personal disabilities, is largely due to lack of balance as between the numbers of men available for certain of the occupations. The whole matter is kept continuously under review by my Department and the Ministry of Works and Buildings

asked the Home Secretary whether, with a view to the imposition of adequate sentences of imprisonment upon persons convicted of the offence commonly known as black marketing, he will take steps to ensure that in all suitable cases proceedings shall be on indictment rather than by summary procedure?

I hope to be in a position to make a further statement on the whole question shortly.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the collection of advertisements of the national wheatmeal loaf placed by him in the Library contains no item of later date than July, 1941; and whether he will now add examples which have appeared since July, 1941?

The file to which my hon. Friend refers contains advertisements which have been exclusively or primarily devoted to National Wheatmeal Bread. As I stated in reply to his Question on 11th December, Ministry of Food publicity in recent months has had to contain, in limited spaces, a large number of announcements concerning rationing and other subjects. Notwithstanding this fact, repeated reference has been made to the wheatmeal loaf, and I have added to the file in question a number of such advertisements which appeared between August, 1941, and January, 1942.

asked the Home Secretary what response has been received from local authorities and voluntary bodies to the Joint Memorandum on Juvenile Delinquency; and whether he is satisfied with such response?

I have received reports of many local conferences which have taken place as a result of the joint memorandum on juvenile offences issued last year by the then President of the Board of Education and myself. These conferences, wherever they have been held, seem to have served a most useful purpose, but neither my right hon. Friend the present President of the Board of Education nor I would venture to say that there is not much more which could be done by means of the co-operation suggested. The situation is being watched and further action will be taken if thought to be necessary.

asked the Minister of Labour the amount of overtime paid in his Department during the last month for which the figures are available; is he satisfied that each person drawing overtime has actually worked fully in all his ordinary time; and in what manner this is checked?

The amount of overtime paid to staff in my headquarters departments and local offices for the month of December, 1941, was, approximately, £36,000. I am satisfied that there is close supervision by senior officers of staffs who are required to work overtime, and the hours worked are checked by responsible officers before payment is made.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware of the grave disquiet created amongst parents in Wallasey and the Wirral generally owing to the legal adoption by strangers, to whose house he had been evacuated, of Kenneth Frederick Speakman, a minor orphaned in an air-raid; that this took place without previous information to his nearest relatives; that application had been made in spite of their subsequent protests; and whether, to avoid future injustices and scandals inherent in such possibilities of adoption, he will consider the immediate introduction of some amending legislation to the Adoption of Children Act, 1926?

I inquired fully into this adoption when it was first brought to my notice a few months ago. The boy, who was nearly 15 years of age at the time of the adoption, was evacuated to Flint-shire on the outbreak of war with a party from Wallasey Grammar School. He had already lost his mother and had been living with his father and brother. The brother was killed in an air raid and the father died without having appointed a guardian. In June, 1941, a married couple with whom the boy had been billeted for over a year applied to the juvenile court for an adoption order. Before the application was determined, the guardian ad litem forwarded to the court a letter from the boy's aunt objecting to the proposed adoption, but after satisfying themselves of the suitability of the couple to adopt the boy, the devotion of the boy to them, his happiness in his existing environment and his desire that the application should be granted, the court made the adoption order. I am not clear what amendment of the Adoption of Children Act, 1926, my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind. The Act already requires the consent of the parents or guardian of a child before lie can be adopted, and I do not think it would be desirable to extend the right to withhold consent to other relatives. It is the duty of the guardian ad litem to investigate fully the circumstances of the infant and all other matters relevant to the proposed adoption, and in order to avoid any appearance of the wishes of the nearest surviving relatives being overlooked I have issued a circular to juvenile court justices calling attention to the desirability of offering a hearing to the nearest surviving relatives if they are found to be interested in an application for adoption. I hope this will allay any disquiet which has o arisen among parents of children who have been evacuated from Wallasey or elsewhere, but it is always open to them to safeguard their position yet further by appointing near relatives to be guardians of their children if they should become orphans.

asked the Home Secretary whether, in making appointments of accounting and other administrative officers in the National Fire Service, he will give a preference to members of local authority staffs who have hitherto carried out these or similar duties?

Appointments to administrative posts in the National Fire Service are made by the Regional Commissioner after consideration of the candidates by a Regional Selection Board. Appointments have in a number of cases been made from the staffs of local authorities: I fully appreciate the desirability of making use of the experience of these officers, and am grateful to local authorities who have released members of their staffs when they are working under conditions of heavy strain.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware of the uneasiness caused in the Gambia Colony by the practice of denying to African customers the sale of articles exposed on the counters of local shops while the same articles are supplied immediately on demand to European and Syrian purchasers; whether any similar discrimination occurs in other British West African Colonies; and whether he will take action to discourage such discrimination?

My Noble Friend is not aware of any cases of dis- crimination of this sort. If my hon. Friend has any concrete examples in mind, perhaps he would be good enough to communicate them to me.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he will now set up a Welsh training regiment, on the lines of the Highland and Lowland training regiments in Scotland, for the reception of new recruits from the whole of Wales and in fulfilment of undertakings given by his predecessors in office that Welsh recruits shall, whenever possible, be posted to Welsh units?

There is already a training centre which serves Welsh regiments exclusively and to which, as far as possible, Welsh recruits are posted on enlistment.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the operation of War Office mobile laundries in the North-West and North Wales where there is ample machinery available for doing service washing; and whether he will arrange for the transfer of these mobile laundries to the Midlands area where it is becoming increasingly difficult to deal with Service requirements?

Laundry facilities in North Wales are inadequate to meet Service requirements, so that it is still necessary to operate a mobile unit in this area. For special reasons a mobile laundry unit has hitherto had to be kept in the North-West, but the possibility of moving it to the Midlands is now being considered.