asked the Minister of Health what is the cost to date of services rendered by the National Health Service to visitors to this country not of British nationality.

I regret that the information is not available.

asked the Minister of Health what is the average length of time from the testing of the eyes to the supply of spectacles under the National Health Service scheme; and what is being done to reduce this time.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the replies given to the hon. Member for Tonbridge (Mr. G. Williams) on 15th and 31st March.

asked the Minister of Health how many orders for spectacles under the health scheme are outstanding; and what is the average period of delay between prescription and receipt.

The number of outstanding orders is not known; the average delay is estimated to be a little over four months.

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware of the serious effect of the fall in meat imports on the manufacture of insulin; and what steps he proposes to take to ensure continued supplies of this drug.

No. Imports of pancreas for manufacture of insulin have not been affected by any fall in meat imports.

asked the Minister of Health whether deaf persons who apply for hearing aids under the National Health Service are given any choice of instrument.

Yes. More than one type of Medresco aid is available and patients can have whichever suits them best.

asked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the fact that eel grass growing on river banks in Southern Europe has remarkable soundproof qualities, he will give consideration to the use of this grass in any future policy on flat building.

Eel grass is already being used in this country for sound insulation.

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware of the high average cost of the mass produced farm building components sponsored by his Department in proportion to traditional building; and how the price asked is made up.

The cost of buildings erected with M.A.F. components compares not unfavourably with the cost of similar buildings of traditional construction. Moreover immediate availability of the components often makes their use profitable. The price of M.A.F. Steel components is made up as follows: materials and manufacture, 83⅓ per cent.; distribution (including transport to the farm), 16⅔ per cent. Manufacturing costs would be lower if new steel were used; but the scheme was designed inter alia to overcome difficulties arising from serious shortage of steel.

asked the Minister of Agriculture why he has recruited as members of the Land Service and as staff of county agricultural executive committees to advise on land agency problems some men who have had very little professional experience and in some cases have not even passed their final examinations.

Those professionally qualified men who have had only limited practical experience and those who have not passed their final examinations serve in the recruitment and sub-professional grades of the Agricultural Land Service and work under the supervision of experienced officers. Advice on land agency problems is the responsibility of officers in the higher grades.

asked the Minister of Agriculture when the date on which the winter period for egg prices will be announced will be fixed, in view of the fact that the absence of such a decision is of great inconvenience to poultry keepers.

The date on which the winter period will start has not yet been fixed, and in any event it will not be announced until shortly beforehand, so as to reduce any temptation to producers to hold back their eggs for the higher price, with consequential impairment of their freshness.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is now able to say what has been the effect of the system under which Japanese goods are being artificially subsidised by means of exchange rates; and what steps he is taking in the matter.

The system of multiple rates which has until recently been in force for the conversion of the foreign exchange receipts of Japanese exports into yen has been accompanied by a policy of fixing the prices charged for Japanese exports in relation to world prices. It has, however, enabled some Japanese industries to maintain production beyond the point which will be profitable now that a single rate of exchange for the yen has been announced unless their costs are reduced. His Majesty's Government have for long regarded a single rate for the yen as being desirable.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total nominal value of bonus share issues authorised by the Capital Issues Committee in each of the last four financial years.

About £5 million in 1947–48 and £7 million in 1948–49. No figures for the previous two years are available, but the amounts were negligible.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total nominal value of new capital authorised by the Capital Issues Committee in each of the last four financial years to private companies formed to acquire the holdings of existing private companies; and what were the nominal capital values of the companies so to be acquired.

I regret that this information is not available.

asked the Minister of Food how much of the rise in food subsidies from £485 million in 1948–49 to £568 million as originally estimated in 1945–50 is attributable to the estimated increased cost of imported food.

£41,600,000.

asked the Minister of Food whether in view of the improved sugar position and the approach of the summer, he will now increase the allocation of sugar to manufacturers of soft drinks, to enable such manufacturers to increase the supply of soft drinks available to the public.

I am afraid that as my right hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary explained fully to the House on 28th April, no more sugar can be allowed to the soft drinks industry at present.

asked the Minister of Labour what were the average weekly earnings of industrial workers and agricultural workers, respectively, during 1948; and how such average earnings compare with the average basic rates of pay.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the article and detailed analysis in the Ministry of Labour Gazette for March, 1949, a copy of which is in the Library.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps have been taken or are contemplated to counter Communist propaganda among Colonial students and other Colonial visitors to this country.

The best answer to Communist propaganda is the truth. The Colonial Office, Colonial Governments and the British Council make available to students and other visitors correct information about Colonial affairs, and about British democratic institutions.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that Mr. P. Servas, the Mayor of Limassol, Cyprus, has been struck off the electoral list as he had not two years' consecutive residence, because he served a term of three months' imprisonment; and as the electoral law requiring two years' residential qualification referred to voluntary removal, whether he will look into this matter and rectify the mistake.

The hon. Member is misinformed about the electoral law in Cyprus. The Cyprus law concerned has no reference to voluntary removal, and the question at issue was whether a period of imprisonment counted as "temporary absence" within the meaning of the law. The revising judge, following the principle laid down in previous judgments in similar cases, ruled that it did not and that a period of imprisonment interrupts legal residence. This is a judicial matter in which my right hon. Friend cannot properly intervene.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that the newspaper Alpenruf, of Graz, supports the Association of Independents, a Fascist organisation, and is openly anti-Semitic; and what steps he is taking to prevent the publication of this Fascist propaganda.

Alpenruf is a weekly newspaper which is under the influence of the leader of the Association of Independents. The case of that paper is at present under consideration by the appropriate authority of the Allied Council in Austria. As regards the Association itself I would refer the hon. Member to the answer which I gave him on a similar subject on 2nd May.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he intends that compensation will be paid to the relatives of the two women killed by police in Malaya on 23rd February.

No. The women were bandits.