asked the Secretary of State for Air if he is aware that officers in the General Education Service of the R.A.F., in spite of their onerous duties in the instruction of air crews, are paid at a much lower rate than other ground officers; and whether he will take steps to end this anomaly.

Members of the R.A.F. Educational Service are in the main employed as teachers either at R.A.F. stations or in Service technical schools. They are paid on the provincial Burnham scale for secondary teachers and receive a special allowance to meet extra expenditure which they may incur owing to their service with the R.A.F. As regards the last part of the Question, I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State on 6th April to the hon. and gallant Member for Brighton (Lieut.-Colonel Marlowe).

asked the Secretary of State for Air, how many of the W.A.A.F. have volunteered for overseas service; how many have been sent; and how many are still needed for this purpose.

While there has been no general call for W.A.A.F. volunteers for service overseas, the number of volunteers exceds the number of available vacancies. I regret that it would not be in the public interest to give the detailed figures asked for in the second and third parts of the Question.

asked the Secretary of State for Air what Report he has received on the death of an airman in Canada in June, 1943, and the illness of a number of others through inoculation with diphtheria toxoid; and whether he will publish it.

I have received the report of the Court of Inquiry which inquired into the circumstances referred to. The report is a privileged document and I regret that I cannot make it available for publication. I am writing to inform the hon. Member of the conclusions which I have reached after consultation with my advisers.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works if he is now in a position to state the result of his investigations into the circumstances in which repairs and rebuilding were carried out recently without licence at a greyhound racing track; and the circumstances which enabled the owner of the track to have at his command the extensive material and labour for the immediate carrying out of the work.

The work in question which is estimated to have cost between £300 and £400 followed immediately upon very serious damage by enemy action estimated at about £20,000; and the bulk, if not all, the work done was necessary either to render the structure safe or to prevent consequential damage to valuable equipment. Apart from a negligible quantity of timber, the material used was salved from the damaged parts of the property. No labour was diverted from more urgent work. In these circumstances it is not proposed to take proceedings against the building owners for carrying out this work without a licence.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works whether steps are being taken by his Department to provide in the, demonstration houses now in course of preparation, coal-burning grates which have been rendered as smokeless as possible, in the light of recent research work in this field.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply to a similar Question from the hon. Member for Twickenham (Mr. Keeling) on 23rd February. The question is being considered in conjunction with my right hon. Friend the Minister for Fuel and Power.

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty how many of the W.R.N.S. have volunteered for overseas service; how many have been sent; and how many are still needed for this purpose.

Up to September, 1941 when mobile service for W.R.N.S. personnel over the age of 21 was extended to anywhere the Admiralty may desire, the number of volunteers for overseas service was 4,676. I regret it is not in the public interest to state how many W.R.N.S. have been sent or will be sent abroad.

asked the Minister of Town and Country Planning whether, in the replanning of London, he will consider advising the local authorities concerned to replan the large area of dilapidated and second-rate property around Covent Garden for the purpose of first-class commercial development, partly with the object of improving a decaying district and partly to check the commercial movement westwards from the City to Mayfair which imperils the amenities of this residential area which largely attracts visitors from abroad.

It will be for the London County Council in the first instance as the Planning Authority for the area to consider how this land should be planned; and my hon. Friend may wish to bring his suggestions to their notice.

asked the Minister of Information if he will approach the appropriate U.S.A. authorities with a view to getting the films "Prelude to War," "The Nazi Strikes," "Divide and Conquer," "Battle of Britain," "Battle of Russia," which have been produced by the Special Service Branch of the U.S.A. forces and are at present being shown to members of the Armed Forces, shown to the general public in the cinemas throughout the country.

This was done last year. One of these films, as a result, has already been booked by more than a thousand British cinemas. Two of the others so far have nearly five hundred bookings each.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will give a list of the publications issued by the Crown Agents for the Colonies since 1st January, 1938, inasmuch as these are not available at His Majesty's Stationery Office.

Since 1st January, 1938, twenty-seven publications have been issued by the Crown Agents for the Colonies and I will send my hon. and gallant Friend a list of them. If my hon. and gallant Friend is referring also to publications issued by Colonial Governments which are held for sale by the Crown Agents, these comprise in the main departmental reports, laws and gazettes. Lists are available only of those received in the past two years, and if he wishes I should be happy to arrange for my hon. and gallant Friend to consult these lists. They include several hundred titles.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the nature of the reports of the special Committee appointed by the East African Governments to review the main aspects of civil aviation policy.

The report of the Committee to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers has not been published by the Governments to whom it was made, and I regret that I am not in a position at present to make any statement on that report.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what progress has been made in the negotiations for the transference of prisoners of war who have been in captivity for a long time to a neutral country.

I am not yet in a position to make any statement regarding this matter, but as soon as I can I shall be glad to do so.

asked the Postmaster-General whether he is prepared to assist associations who are registered under the War Charities Act, 1940, in their work of sending out individually addressed parcels to members of the Forces by conceding to them free or reduced postal rates for this purpose.

Reduced rates of postage are already applied to parcels for H.M. Forces serving overseas, and I regret that I am unable to grant any further concession in favour of associations registered under the War Charities Act.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will state the terms of the Order making compulsory the employment of policewomen in all towns; whether he has taken into consideration the position in this respect of local authorities who do not agree; and how far policewomen are to be employed in morality duties.

The action I have taken has not been by means of a hard and fast Order but, as I explained in my reply to the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Mr. Lipson) on 6th April, I have called the attention of police authorities to the need for an adequate number of policewomen in those parts of the country where large numbers of troops are concentrated. Experience has shown that much valuable work can be done by policewomen in checking misbehaviour and exercising a restraining influence; and while, as I stated in my reply of 6th April, we must in the main rely on other agencies than the police for the inculcation of standards of conduct, this is not a reason for omission on the part of any police authority to appoint policewomen to deal with those aspects of the problem created by war conditions with which the police can properly concern themselves.

asked the Prime Minister whether, with a view to the investigation into the operation of equal pay, he will ask the Royal Commission on the Population to obtain evidence as to its effect on the birthrate.

No, Sir. The terms of reference of the Royal Commission have been so drawn as to exclude nothing that is relevant to the whole problem of population trends in Great Britain, and it is for the Royal Commission itself to determine on what matters it should obtain evidence.

asked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he will state the figures

COAL MINING INDUSTRY.
Period.	Average No. of wage-earners on colliery books.	Total output of Saleable coal raised.	Average No. of shifts worked per wage-earner per week.†	Average proceeds per ton disposable commercially.†		Average Wage paid (excluding the value of allowances in kind).
						Per ton disposable commercially.†		Per man-shift worked.†
				s	d.	s.	d.	s.	d.
Jan.-June, 1936	759,500	114,606,500	4·99	14	6·31	9	1 ·42	10	0·03
July-Dec., 1936	752,500	113,827,700	5·02	14	8·69	9	2·61	10	0·66
Jan.-June,1937	772,000	120,488,500	5 23	15	6·30	9	7·25	10	7·01
July-Dec., 1937	783,700	119,904,200	5·14	16	2·82	10	0·47	10	9·06
Jan.-June, 1938	789,500	116,375.900	5·05	17	3·58	10	5·68	11	2·38
July-Dec., 1938	773,900	110,617,300	4·87	17	5·16	10	7·23	11	2·79
Jan.-June, 1939	773,000	117,751,500	5·18	17	6·46	10	8·35	11	5·79
July-Dec., 1939	759,600	113,586,400	5·11	18	4·36	11	1·20	11	7·75
Jan.-June, 1940	762,400	117,951,700	5·36	19	11·82	12	2·04	12	8·67
July-Dec., 1940	736,000	106,347,100	5·18	20	10·98	13	4·82	13	4·38
Jan.-June, 1941	692,900	101,314,200	5·35	23	6·60	14	4·89	14	2·91
July-Dec., 1941	702,300	105,030,100	5·39	24	6·37	15	8·88	15	6·64
Jan.-June, 1942	707,100	100,800,200	5·35	24	8·69	16	9·17	16	2·24
July-Dec., 1942	710,900	102,833,200	5·33	27	10·36	19	4·81	18	8·38
Jan.-June, 1943*	710,300	99,151,300	5·23	28	11·39	19	10·93	18	11·05
July-Dec., 1943*	702,700	96,337,300	5·03	28	11·15	20	7·31	19	3·36
* Provisional.
† Information in respect of the whole of the coal mining industry is not available except in the case of shifts worked per wage-earner for which complete statistics were available from the beginning of 1943. The figures shown relate to undertakings accounting for between 96 and 97 per cent. of the total output and have been obtained from returns made in connection with the wages ascertainments.

asked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether he is aware of the interference with harvest and autumn seeding operations caused by having to cart coal and coke in small lots to farms and country houses connected with agriculture; and whether he will arrange for a year's ration of coal and coke to be given priority to be drawn in bulk in May and early June, on the recommendation of their war agricultural committees, to avoid loss of crops and to save petrol.

Existing instructions to Local Fuel Overseers already pro-

Following is the information:vide for special consideration to be given to farms and other isolated premises in building up winter coal supplies during the summer. So far as the supplies position permits, all consumers who can stock a year's supply will be allowed to do so during this summer, though it may not be possible to put these arrangements into force as early as May or June.

asked the Minister of Production the number and monthly cost of his staff in June, 1942, June, 1943, and January, 1944.

The Ministry of Production was first formed in March, 1942. The number and monthly cost of the

	Number of Staff									Monthly Cost
Date		Full Time		Part Time		Unpaid		Total
	Regions	H.Q.	Regions	H.Q.	Regions	H.Q.	Regions	H.Q.	Grand Total	Regions			Headquarters			Total
										£	s.	d.	£	s.	d.	£	s.	d.
30 June, 1942	233	253	—	1	—	5	233	259	492	4,819	8	9	6,968	10	0	11,787	18	9
30 June, 1943	736	553	58	12	12	26	806	591	1,397	18,366	8	6	20,419	6	11	38,785	15	5
31 Jan., 1944	756	586	80	21	14	25	850	632	1,482	18,628	3	9	21,692	12	4	40,320	16	1

These figures do not include staff engaged locally by overseas missions.Such staff at present numbers 287 at a cost of approximately £10,000 per month.The remaining staff of overseas missions (56 in number) is included in the figures of Headquarters Staff.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can make any statement on the progress made for formulating plans for the establishment of an organisation for maintaining international peace and order after the war.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given yesterday by the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Basset-law (Mr. Bellenger).

asked the Minister of Aircraft Production whether he can make a statement explaining the necessity for the State to acquire the business concerned with the development of jet propulsion engines; and whether this is contemplated as a permanent or temporary arrangement.

Yes, Sir. Development of gas turbine engines has reached a stage at which the national interests require the setting up of a permanent Government-owned research centre of gas turbine technology if the full potential benefits to be derived from this new type of power plant are to be secured. Re-

asked the Minister of Labour if he will inquire into the case, details of which have been submitted to him, of a woman medical student, now aged 26, who was compelled by family circumstances to delay entering upon her medical studies, but who has been accepted for completion of her medical training by a British school of medicine, the term to commence this month, but has been informed by a local employment exchange that she will not be allowed to continue her medical studies because she is over 19 years of age.

The woman medical student to whom my hon. Friend refers entered upon her medical studies in 1942 and was in consequence reserved. In August, 1943, the university authorities reported that she had failed to make satisfactory progress and in consequence her reservation was withdrawn. In view of the fact that she does not satisfy the condition as to age, which is now in operation, and of her previous failure to make satisfactory progress in her medical studies, I regret that I am unable to allow her to be reserved for the purpose of entering another medical school, and if, as a result of an independent medical examination, she is found fit to undertake work of national importance I must require her to do so.

asked the Minister of Health if he will take steps to ensure that adequate facilities are made available for the repair and production of medically approved hearing appliances for the deaf and to make provision in collaboration with the Minister of Labour for the deferment of key technicians and trained ancillary staffs engaged in this work, in view of the number of deaf persons now engaged in work of national importance with the assistance of such appliances.

I have no evidence to show that existing facilities are other than adequate. As regards deferment of military service, the appropriate recommendation to the District Man Power Boards goes through the Ministry of Supply, in consultation where necessary with my Department and with the Board of Trade.