asked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the number of claims for unemployment insurance benefit which are disallowed on account of ignorance of the correct procedure in applying for benefit, he will arrange that, in addition to displaying more prominent notices in employment exchanges, the staff of exchanges will draw the attention of persons registering for work after a period of sickness to the correct method of making fresh claims for unemployment insurance benefit?

I am not aware that a large number of claims are so disallowed, but if my hon. and gallant Friend will give me particulars of any cases I will inquire into them. The staff already have instructions to assist claimants, and a new issue of large posters for this purpose could scarcely be justified in present circumstances.

Will the hon. Gentleman look into cases that are turned down by the appeal tribunals?

Yes, certainly, if there is a reason for their late applications.

Is it not a fact that trade union officials will see that men get what they are entitled to?

Yes, Sir, but this question probably refers to cases of new entrants into industry who are not familiar with the procedure. If cases are sent forward, we will see that inquiry is made.

asked the Secretary of State for India whether, in view of the visit to this country of newspaper editors from West Africa and the West Indies, he will make arrangements for a similar visit from representative Indian editors or journalists?

I am in communication. with the Government of India regarding the hon. Member's suggestion, and I will consider the matter as soon as I have received their views.

When will my right hon. Friend he able to indicate his decision?

Perhaps my hon. Friend will ask a Question in the next series of Sittings.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that Mr. Justice Cassels, on Wednesday, 5th May, at Manchester Assizes, passed a sentence of four years' penal servitude on a medical practitioner convicted of performing illegal operations; that following evidence that the prisoner had suffered from general paralysis of the insane, and was now a mental wreck, the judge stated in passing sentence that there would be ample opportunity for more efficient treatment of the prisoner's case; what steps he has taken to provide specialised mental treatment; in what prison it is being provided; and the qualifications of the medical practitioner by whom the treatment is being given?

The prisoner to whom my hon. Friend refers has been transferred to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, where there are facilities for dealing with mental cases requiring special treatment, and where he is under the care of the Medical Officer, who has a wide experience of cases of this kind.

Was he mad when he received sentence of four years?

Is the prisoner referred to actually receiving malaria treatment?

I cannot say that, but he is under most careful observation.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will state the date and terms of his circular to magistrates on the subject of Defence Regulations relating to Trespass?

I think my hon. Friend's Question must be due to some misunderstanding. No circular on this subject has been issued to magistrates by my Department. He may have in mind a reference which was made by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture to a circular issued to Chief Constables. It would not be in accordance with practice to divulge the terms of Home Office circulars to the police which are confidential, but the gist of the advice given to the police is that the regulation was designed to prevent pilfering and damage and not to penalise innocent trespassers.

On a point of Order. If a circular or document issued by a Minister is quoted in Debate, is there not an obligation on the Minister to circulate it to Parliament?

Certainly not. Departmental instructions need not be laid on the Table.

asked the Home Secretary whether he is yet in a position to state the Government's proposals as regards redistribution of Parliamentary seats?

asked the. Home Secretary whether the Government have yet concluded their consideration of the question of redistribution; and whether he can make any statement on the matter?

In view of the length of the answer to these Questions, which I will, with permission, answer together, I propose to make a statement at the end of Questions.

Since the last distribution of Parliamentary seats took place in 1918, there have been large changes in the distribution of population. In some constituencies the population has been greatly reduced; in others the population has doubled and in some places even trebled or quadrupled. On the principle, therefore, that each vote recorded shall as far as possible command an equal share of representation in the House of Commons, the case for a scheme of redistribution is established. The Departmental Committee on Electoral Machinery, which included representatives of the main political parties, recommended that Parliament, when taking the necessary steps to correct the maldistribution now existing, should also make permanent provision for adjusting constituencies to future changes in the distribution of population. The Government propose to submit to Parliament legislation to give effect to the Committee's recommendations. In such legislation it is proposed to set out the general principles on which any scheme of redistribution should be based; to provide for the appointment of Boundary Commissioners charged with the duty of preparing schemes when occasion arises for distributing constituencies in accordance with those principles; and to make provision for the submission of any such schemes to Parliament for approval. By the passing of such legislation it is hoped to secure that a scheme of redistribution will take effect before the first post-war General Election is held. Thereafter there will be in existence a standing body of Boundary Commissioners, who will keep the state of the constituencies under review and will be in a position, when any redistribution is required, to prepare schemes for Parliamentary approval. Under such an arrangement complete control over all measures of redistribution will remain with Parliament.

Will the right hon. Gentleman, following on the precedent of 1918, while redistribution is being considered, at the same time set up a Commission or Committee of inquiry to consider the whole of the electoral system, which he undertook to do some three years ago when he first introduced the Bill dealing with the extension of the life of Parliament?

I think my right hon. Friend's recollection is not quite correct. There have been repeated requests for a Speaker's Conference or a Commission on Electoral Reform but the Government have not yet returned an affirmative answer to that, although it is not excluded, but what we did say was that we would give an opportunity for Parliamentary Debate at an appropriate time so that views on electoral reform could be ventilated, and the Government would take them into account. I do not think that my right hon. Friend will find that the statement I have made in any, way prejudices that undertaking.

Do the Government refuse to give an opportunity for discussion? We have constantly asked for an opportunity during the last few years, and three years have gone by and we have not had an opportunity to discuss electoral reform.

That is quite true, because the Government think that the appropriate time has not yet been reached.

Why need there be any undue delay in presenting the Bill, having regard to the fact that every one of these proposals is to be found incorported in a Private Bill that I introduced seven years ago?

Does not the Home Secretary realise that there will be a very great amount of resentment, particularly in Wales and, I imagine, in Scotland, if Parliamentary representation is going to be based upon what has been considered to be an entirely unfair method of denuding these areas of their population in the last 10 or 15 years, and they will not want to have that situation perpetuated in Parliamentary representation?

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that by the Act of 192o the representation of Northern Ireland was reduced from 3o to 13 and the representation of the City of Belfast from 9 to 4? Does he think that this representation of Ulster is adequate in the Imperial Parliament?

I should not like to express an opinion about the adequacy of Ulster's representation. It does, at any rate, make itself felt. The circumstances of Northern Ireland are special, in that Northern Ireland has a Parliament of its own which is doing in respect of Northern Ireland much of the work which, in Great Britain, is done by this Parliament.

Has due weight been given to the Minority Report attached to the Report to which my right hon. Friend has referred, in view of the fact that after the war it will take a long time before the population is properly settled?

The Minority Report was in respect of the point as to whether there should be a redistribution in relation to a possible war-time election.

No.

I thought that was the point. However, that factor will be borne in mind. I do not disguise from the House that there will be plenty of difficulties over a period of years until the population has more or less settled down.

Do the Government intend, in the legislation it is proposed to introduce, to alter the number of Members of Parliament at the present time or not?

I think it would be premature to give an answer to that question, but it would be made clear, I hope, when the legislation is brought in.

Will the question of the abolition of plural voting also be considered?

That would not arise on this Bill. That would have to be considered in relation to the arguments about electoral reform of a wider character.

rose—

On a point of Order. I have risen three or four times, Mr. Speaker, in order to put a supplementary question.

The hon. Member may rise as many times as he likes, but if he does not catch my eye, he is not entitled to address the House.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will see his way to provide for the recoupment to the local authority of a pension paid to an officer who was formerly a part-time unpaid volunteer in the Auxiliary Fire Service and was subsequently transferred to the National Fire Service and has been invalided out of that service?

If my hon. and gallant Friend has a particular case in mind and will let me have details, I will have inquiry made.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will take into consideration the condition of men in Northern Ireland who served in the Royal Irish Constabulary which was an armed force to the time of its dissolution and which passed through a period of open warfare during the disturbances preceding the Irish Settlement of 1922; and whether, in the review of pensions now taking place, the position of these men will have generous treatment?

The circumstances to which my hon. Friend refers were taken into account at the time of the disbandment of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and, having regard to these special circumstances, Parliament made special provision for these men in the Constabulary (Ireland) Act, 1922. I know of no reason for revising the provision made by that Act.

Is not this one of the most disgraceful episodes in the story of recent Governments—the treatment of these ex-Royal Irish Constabulary; and may I ask my right hon. Friend whether, when he was in Northern Ireland the other day, cases were not brought to his notice of the desperate condition of many of these men? Would it be beyond the resources of his Department to put an end to the present position?

If it is a disgraceful episode, as is stated, is it not attributable, not to my right hon. Friend opposite and the present Government, but to the Conservative Government which my hon. Friend himself supported?

asked the Home Secretary on what grounds Major Leonard Cripps, of Liverpool, was granted an exit permit enabling him to visit America recently, in view of the fact that, since his arrival there, he has made public statements of a nature likely to damage American regard for this country and His Majesty's Government?

An exit permit was granted to Major Cripps in his capacity as chairman of Elder Dempster Lines, Ltd., to enable him to visit that Company's organisations in Canada and the United States. I was advised by the competent Government Department that this visit was in the national interest. I have no knowledge of any such public statements as are referred to in the latter part of the Question.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this Gentleman has been quoted in the American Press as saying that this is a "country of mad hatters" and that the British Government are "destroying civilisation by giving away all this blasted money," and is it not possible, when British citizens go abroad in war-time, to advise them to use a little discretion in public statements about their own country?

I quite agree that as a general rule it is desirable, especially when the permit is given on business grounds, that the person should be very careful of any statement he makes, but I have not got full particulars of any of the statements referred to.

Would it not be possible to send over his right hon. and learned brother as a counter-irritant?

asked the Home Secretary whether he will consider favourably the proposal that civil servants serving overseas should, by post or by proxy, exercise the franchise?

Under the existing law a civil servant, like anyone else who has the necessary residence qualification and satisfies the Registration Officer that there is a probability of his being abroad at the time of an election, can appoint a proxy; but the suggestion, I understand, is that Crown servants who are not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, and therefore not entitled under the existing law to be registered for any constituency, should be given a special franchise, should be deemed to be resident in some constituency, and should be authorised to vote at any election in that constituency by post or by proxy. Such a substantive amendment of the franchise law would be outside the scope of the proposed legislation dealing with electoral machinery, and falls into the category of questions for discussion when proposals for electoral reform are under consideration.

asked the Home Secretary whether he will issue instructions to passport officials to grant travel permits to teachers in Northern Ireland who desire to take refresher courses in Britain during the holidays?

Exit permits are granted to teachers in Northern Ireland to enable them to come to this country to take refresher courses if their applications are supported by the Ministry of Education, Northern Ireland.

I have had many hard cases of that description brought to my notice during the week-end, including that of a young lady who had made application, and I would ask my right hon. Friend whether he will see that there is no holdup in the case of teachers who wish to equip themselves better for their work?

I should think the young lady had better take the matter up in the first instance with the Ministry of Education in Northern Ireland.

asked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the fact that Parliamentary by-elections covering considerable areas are permitted during the war, he will consider the advisability in connection with any extension of the Local Elections and Registered Electors (Temporary Provisions) Act of so amending it as to permit local government by-elections?

I have further considered this question, but the fact that Parliamentary vacancies are filled by election and that many of these elections are contested is not, I think, a reason for holding that it would be right during the war to revive the peace-time practice of holding periodically elections all over the country for local authorities. The consideration must still be kept in mind that such a change would involve a serious diversion of time and attention from the war effort.

Can my right hon. Friend explain how it is that it is possible to have a Parliamentary by-election covering a wide area and impossible, apparently to have a local government by-election covering a very small area?

It is not impossible, but I think, in view of the stresses to which local government officials are subjected, that it is undesirable. Moreover, there is the difficulty that some of the municipal wards have been so knocked about by the enemy that I am not sure how many electors are left in some cases.

Does not my right hon. Friend think that if we had the municipal elections in November it would bring public questions before the notice of the people and in that way make for good citizenship?

Yes, but if the municipal elections were held in November and other local government elections in March and April, including triennial county council elections, I think that would involve demands upon man-power which would be out of proportion to the necessities of the situation.

Has there not been far too much co-opting?

asked the Home Secretary whether consideration has been given during recent years to the constitution and adequate use of prison libraries; and whether qualified advisers have been consulted to secure better use of books in prisons?

Various aspects of the question of the constitution and use of prison libraries have been considered during recent years, and changes have been made in the rules and practice with a view to improving both the facilities for obtaining books and the better use of those facilities. In the development of these plans, help and advice have been obtained from various quarters and especially from the librarians of county and borough libraries, whose assistance has been most valuable.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the prison libraries still depend very largely upon gifts of books from outside and a few rejected books from the public libraries, and that a large number of the books are crime stories which are interesting to the prisoners but not always beneficial?

Is Hansard send to the libraries?

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that certain employees of local authorities, who have given satisfactory service for as long as 20 years and who would normally receive a superannuation allowance on retirement, are losing all expectation of such an allowance by being transferred to other employment under Regulation 58A; and whether he will take steps to remedy this hardship?

The superannuation rights of an employee of a local authority who ceases to serve the authority in order to undertake war service are preserved by the Local Government Staffs (War Service) Act, 1939, and I have recognised as war service for purposes of that Act any employment to which an employee of a local authority is transferred in pursuance of a direction given by the Minister of Labour and National Service under Defence Regulation 58A. I am sending my hon. Friend a copy of the circular giving such recognition.

Is the Minister aware that under the Act it is possible that a superannuable person may become non-superannuable because he has taken up Civil Defence duties?

I would like notice of that Question.

asked the Minister of Health whether, in the interests of mothers and of control of children, as a war-time measure, he will agree to the provision by local authorities of home helps in special cases where mothers with families have been deprived of, and are unable to obtain, domestic help due to the requirements of the Ministry of Labour?

Home helps are provided by local authorities under powers which authorise them to make arrangements for the care of expectant and nursing mothers and of young children. In view of the urgency of meeting the needs of women unable to make satisfactory arrangements of their own at the time of their confinement, I have in a recent Circular particularly directed the attention of authorities to the assistance which might be given to meet these cases.

The Minister has not answered the Question on the Paper as to whether he can render some assistance in the matter of home helps to the overworked mothers of families who, due to domestic cares, are unable to attend to their children, which is creating large numbers of hooligans.

The hon. Member will see that I have answered his Question by implication. It is quite clear that preference must be given to expectant and nursing mothers and those with growing children. Some local authorities have been so successful with their schemes of home helps that they are extending their availability and making the best use they can of them.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that approximately 16 cwts. of onion seed were incinerated in the King's Pike, Victoria Dock, at the beginning of June; and to what extent tobacco and other goods on which duty has not been paid are still being destroyed in this way instead of being used to the national advantage?

Yes, Sir. At the instance of the Ministry of Agriculture, the onion seed in question was destroyed, as it was worthless for the purpose for which is had been imported, and no alternative use for it could be found. As regards the second part of the Question, arrangements are in operation under which damaged or deteriorated tobacco is wherever practicable either reconditioned or delivered for use in nicotine factories; sound tobacco seized under the Customs laws is disposed of by sale or by distribution to appropriate recipients. The same principle is followed generally in regard to other goods, namely, that no goods are destroyed for which a suitable use, if necessary with remission of duty, under proper safeguards, can be found.

asked the chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is now able to make a statement on the exchange rate fixed for the occupied territory of Italy?

The rate of exchange for the lira in those parts of Metropolitan Italy now in the occupation of the Allied Forces has been fixed at 400 lire to £1 or 5o lire to $1. This rate has been fixed in agreement with the Government of the United States and after taking into account, so far as possible, all relevant economic factors. In a case like the present there are obvious difficulties in assessing the relevant factors at their proper value. Neither the official prices and exchange rates on the one hand nor the very different black market prices and exchange rates on the other form a reliable guide. Moreover, the position and prospects of the lira are entirely changed and will continue to be affected by the fact of invasion itself. In the presence of so many imponderable considerations the provisional rate of 400 was fixed.

In view of the transcendent importance of this decision, both for its own sake and for precedent, and of the need for securing public acceptance that it justly represents purchasing power parity, will the Chancellor of the Exchequer consider whether there are any data which he can publish which will commend the acceptance of this figure to the public as a whole?

I will consider that.

Could the Chancellor say what steps have been taken to avoid trafficking between North Africa and Sicily? If you travel the right way, you can make 8o lire to the pound.

That is another matter.

But it is a very important matter. I ask, What steps is the Chancellor taking to avoiding trafficking in lire? It is easy to make a lot of money.

Perhaps my hon. Friend will put that Question on the paper.

How are the exchange rates of the pound and the dollar into Italian currency reconciled with the existing exchange rates between the pound and the dollar direct, which is four dollars to the pound?

I have said that there are various factors in this matter. It is impracticable to come, I think, to what you might call a logical conclusion. This is the best decision that has been arrived at by the two Governments.

Is the Chancellor aware that the point put by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Edinburgh (Mr. Pethick-Lawrence) represents the view held strongly in different parts of this House, and will he attach the greatest importance to arriving at an eventual decision which will be fair to all parties concerned?

The right hon. Gentleman asked me if I would give some further information on this matter, and I said that I would endeavour to do so.

Is it fair that our prisoners only get 72 lire to the pound?

On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. Would you permit me to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there was not an error in the figure he read out in reply to me with regard to the American dollar?

Yes, Sir. I am afraid that when I said 5o lire to the dollar, it ought to have been 100 lire. It was a mistake on my part.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he will issue a White Paper giving his reasons for recommending that many people should be obliged to drink pasteurised milk, although for various causes they strongly object to doing so?

My Noble Friend has nothing to add to what has been said in Command Paper 6454.

Can there be any reason for advocating this if you have got the right stock?

I have nothing to add to my answer.

In view of the fact that the Minister has advocated the use of pasteurised milk, why does the new milk scheme provide for the distribution of accredited milk?

I think that is a different question from the one on the Paper.

If the Minister has a good case, would it not be a very good thing to publish it to help to persuade many people in the country who are so opposed to this scheme? Is it not better in a democratic country to use persuasion?

This appears to be an argument, and not a question to ascertain facts.

asked the Prime Minister whether he can make a statement on the recognition that is to be made of men and women who have served in the Armed Forces at home and abroad, those who have been wounded, and making it applicable to all Services?

A full statement on this subject will be made to the House before we rise.

asked the Prime Minister whether any action is proposed by the Government to carry out the suggestions in Section 19 of the Report on the Women's Services that members of the Auxiliary Services should form part of the Armed Forces for work in Europe and elsewhere after the war?

The future organisation of the Women's Services after general demobilisation cannot be considered apart from that of the Armed Forces as a whole, and the time has not yet come to determine policy on this whole question. The Government can, however, state that for some time after hostilities have ceased in any area the Women's Auxiliary Services will, still be needed. In particular, members of the Auxiliary Services will be needed to accompany the Forces of Occupation so soon as conditions permit of their being sent overseas.

asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the fact that women officers are not allowed batmen, he will consider granting them the equivalent in allowances in lieu thereof?

When this matter was considered some time ago the decision was adverse. The question is, however, constantly under review.

Does my right hon. Friend not think that where men and women officers are doing exactly the same job they should be granted the same personal assistance?

I think that uniformity should be mitigated by general convenience and custom.

Would it not be possible for women officers to have men for batmen?