asked the Minister of Health what steps he has taken, Or is taking, to ensure that the water in emergency supply tanks and reservoirs in populated areas does not remain stagnant to a degree that will endanger the public health?

If, as I assume, my hon. Friend refers to emergency storage of water for fire-fighting, the National Fire Service and local authorities, acting on directions which I issued in conjunction with my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary early this year, treat such water in a way that prevents the breeding of mosquitoes, which I am advised would be the only source of risk to the public health, though a small one.

asked the Minister of Health when he expects to receive the report of the Rushcliffe Committee?

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to the hon. Member for Rugby (Mr. W. Brown) on 10th November.

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware of the concern felt in Radcliffe, Lanes, at the calling up for military service of a doctor who has 3,100 panel patients and who, unable to obtain an assistant, is endeavouring, with three surgeries to do the work of two men in an industrial district which has no hospital; that the Lancashire Insurance Committee admits that the position will be strained by the doctor's departure: and whether, in the interests of the community, he will take steps to enable the doctor to remain at his post?

I am aware of the facts of this case, on which my hon. Friend has corresponded with me. I regret as much as he does any inconvenience which may be caused to his constituents by calling up the doctor, but I am afraid that a similar situation prevails in the country as a whole and is inevitable if the medical needs of the Forces are to be met. The Central Medical War Committee, which is responsible for recommending the selection of individual doctors to provide the numbers required, has advised after a full investigation that the doctor's patients can be attended by the other doctors remaining in the area, and I do not feel justified in taking steps to prevent his recruitment.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will set out in detail the steps taken by his Department in connection with the production and distribution of cows' milk in a clean and healthy condition and state the various regulations made by his Department for this purpose?

The hygienic quality of milk is the subject of various provisions of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, and of Orders and Regulations made under, or kept in operation by virtue of, the Act. These are mainly the Milk and Dairies Orders, 1926–1938, and the Milk (Special Designations) Regulations, 1936–1942. They are executed and enforced by local authorities. The following are the principal relevant provisions:— Registration.—No person may carry on the trade of cowkeeper or dairyman or use any farm or other premises as a dairy unless he and the premises are registered with the local authority. A local authority may, in the case of persons applying to be registered or registered as retail purveyors of milk, refuse to register or cancel the registration if they are satisfied that the public health is, or is likely to be, endangered by any act or default of the person concerned. A person aggrieved by any such decision may appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction.

asked the Minister of Health how many people are billeted in the house known as Woodlands, Sunningdale, Berkshire; what the annual rent, rates and taxes of this house amount to; and what the cost of adapting this house for billetees will be?

At present 10 persons are living in Woodlands. As the house has been requisitioned, rent is not payable but compensation, the amount of which has not yet been settled, is due under the Compensation (Defence) Act, 1939. The outgoings in addition to compensation amount roughly to £80 a year. No adaptations have had to be made but some extra fittings are being installed at an estimated cost of £66.

asked the Minister of Pensions whether, in view of the fact that when during the last war the cost of living index figure rose to 215 the pension of majors was raised to £450 and that now with the index figure at 200 the pension stands at £407 10s., which sum would be commensurate with an index figure of 182, he will concede to majors a pension of £430, which amount would be appropriate to the present index figure of 200 and raise the pensions of other retired officers in like proportion?

I have been asked to reply. No, Sir. The reasons were explained to the House by my right hon. Friends the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Financial Secretary in previous answers given on 30th September, 1941, and 22nd July last, copies of which I am sending to the hon. and gallant Member.

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that officers and men have recently walked out of concerts being given by Entertainments National Service Association owing to the obscene language of comedians; and whether he will take steps to put an end to this kind of entertainment?

I am not aware that Army officers and men have walked out of con- certs given by E.N.S.A. in the circumstances described by my hon. Friend but if he will send me particulars of the case to which he refers I will have it investigated. All comedians employed by E.N.S.A. have strict instructions not to use obscene language of any kind and I am satisfied that these instructions are in general obeyed. The script of all entertainments and their dress rehearsals are carefully scrutinised at E.N.S.A. headquarters before they are approved. The entertainments are inspected while they are on tour by E.N.S.A.'s area organisers and the entertainments officer of the unit to which the show is given signs a report on every performance.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that a new scheme has been instituted by the head of the medical department, Sierra Leone, whereby, in spite of the greatly increased cost of living, the status and salaries of all dispensers, dressers and storekeepers has been substantially reduced; and whether, as this departure is unjust and bad for the public service, he will have the matter examined with a view to securing equitable treatment for these employees?

Last year the salary scales of male and female nurses in Sierra Leone had to be reconsidered because State registered nurses trained in the United Kingdom were becoming available and the existing scales had proved unsatisfactory, the initial salaries being too high and the prospects of advancement too limited to attract the type of African candidate required. It was necessary to bring into line with the new salary scales for nurses the scales of other subordinate posts in the Medical and Health Department, as the holders are recruited from the same sources and serve in the same Department. The holders of all the lower grades of these posts will have been paid in addition the scaled cost of living bonus in accordance with the award made last year. The cost of living position is being constantly watched by the Sierra Leone Government with a view to any further action that may be considered necessary to mitigate hardships arising from any further increase in the cost of living.

asked the Minister of Agriculture what is the acreage of arable land in Essex for the latest date for which figures are available and the similar figure for 1939?

In 1939 the arable area in Essex was 387,000 acres. I regret that it is not in the public interest to disclose the corresponding figures for the war period.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether the concentration plants are receiving any fish offal for manure or poultry food as a result of the new system of not beheading or filleting fish sent from coast inland; and whether he can make a statement on the subject?

I am not aware that there has been any substantial alteration in the extent to which fish landed at the principal fishing ports are headed or filleted before being sent inland. The offal resulting from this process continues to be sent to the fish meal factories at the ports for conversion into feeding stuffs for poultry, pigs and cattle.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will set out in detail the steps taken by the Department to secure the production of cows' milk in a clean and healthy condition, stating the various; regulations laid down for this purpose and for that of the distribution, whether for manufacture or retail purposes, by his Department?

The administration of regulations as to the production of cows' milk in a clean, healthy condition is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health. But my Department is now administering a scheme under which milk shall be tested at the point of first delivery as to its keeping quality. The scheme is devised to ensure that sour milk shall be kept off the liquid milk market, and particularly that sour milk shall not be bulked with clean milk and thus contaminate considerable quantities on the way to the consumer. In the case of all samples of milk found by the test to be unfit for the liquid milk market, notification is made to the relevant county war agricultural executive committees in order that arrangements may be made for the producers concerned to be visited and advised on how their method may be improved. This scheme does not replace any existing legislation with regard to milk. In administering it my Department is assisted by an Advisory Committee consisting of representatives of this Department, the Ministries of Health and Food, the County Councils' Association, the N.F.U., the Milk Marketing Board, and the Central Milk Distributive Committee. I am sending to my hon. Friend a copy of a memorandum on the scheme which has been sent to consumers, milk depots and dairies. Regulations with regard to the distribution of milk are the concern of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Food.

asked the Minister of Agriculture what progress has been made with the milk testing scheme; what are its scope and method; and what means are being taken to bring within it milk depots and producer retailers?

I hope that by the end of this month all the larger creameries, milk depots, and dairies will have been equipped and staffed for the purposes of the Milk Testing Scheme. All milk put aside by the platform examiners at those centres is submitted to a ten-minute test and classified according to its keeping quality. I am sending my hon. Friend a copy of a memorandum on the scheme recently sent to milk collecting depots. Plans are being made to bring the smaller collecting centres into the scheme. Milk testing in the case of producer retailers presents special problems, and experiments into the best means of dealing with this are being made.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware of complaints by owners of newspapers in Jamaica and other West Indian islands that, whilst there are abundant stocks of newsprint, their supplies have been so rationed as to compel them to reduce the number of the pages of their newspapers from a quarter to one-sixth of normal; and what steps he is taking to help them?

Only one such complaint, which was published in a news- paper in Jamaica, has been brought to my notice, and this is being investigated. As I stated in reply to a Question on 2nd December by the hon. Member for Dewsbury (Mr. Riley), restrictions have been introduced, at the request of my predecessor, in Jamaica and certain other West Indian Colonies limiting weekly and daily issues of newspapers to a maximum of six pages per issue or 36 pages per six issues. These restrictions, which are applied to all newspapers alike, were introduced in order to save shipping space, and I do not consider that they impose any undue hardship on the owners of the newspapers.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware of the growing feeling of disappointment felt by the boys in the Birmingham area of the Air Training Corps at the non-issue of overcoats; and will he consider the advisability of issuing overcoats in some other colour if the cause of the non-issue is the scarcity of blue cloth?

It is well understood in the Air Training Corps that the issue of overcoats is precluded by the shortage of material, and I am informed by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Production that he is not hopeful that the difficulty can be overcome. The shortage is not restricted to blue cloth.

asked the Minister of Labour the aggregate increase in basic wages of the trades, for which he has records, since 3rd September, 1939, to the latest date for which statistics are available?

On the basis of such information as is available to my Department, relating mainly to rates of wages fixed by statutory orders or by collective agreements between organisations of employers and workpeople, it is estimated that the average increase in weekly full-time rates of wages since the beginning of the war up to the end of October, 1942, was between 31 and 32 per cent.

asked the Home Secretary how many cases of a free pardon have been granted during the last three years to persons who had been convicted for non-indictable offences; how many free pardons were signed in each case; and what became of these signed documents?

Twenty-seven free pardons have been granted during the last three years in respect of non-indictable offences. In each case there has been one warrant under the Royal Sign Manual. Each warrant was sent to the clerk of the court to be noted on his records and is now with the relevant Home Office papers.