asked the Assistant Postmaster-General (1) what amount of the total commercial profits of the Post Office of £12,574,425 was accounted for by free services to other Government Departments;(2) what amount was included in the Commercial Accounts Post Office Telephones profit of £9,936,665 for the year 1950–51, for free services to other Government Departments.

Postal services to other Departments are assessed at cost and telephone services generally at tariff rates. It is not practicable to say how much particular customers or groups of customers contribute to the commercial surplus, but the total credit taken for services to other Government Departments in 1950–51 was £24,015,000, of which £13,006,000 was in respect of telephone services.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General what check is imposed by the Post Office on the estimates for free services supplied to other Government Departments.

No check is imposed by the Post Office on the extent to which other Government Departments use Post Office services. The Post Office merely puts a value on these services and takes a credit for them in the commercial accounts.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General the present operating terms for carriage by air mail existing between the British Overseas Airways Corporation, the British European Airways Corporation and his Department.

First-class air mails for overseas originating in the United Kingdom are carried by the British Overseas Airways Corporation at rates ranging from 182 pence to 243 pence per ton-mile for long hauls and by British European Airways Corporation at 132 pence per ton-mile for short hauls.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General how many motor vehicles are owned by the Post Office; what is their present value; and what is the present weekly consumption of petrol.

The number is 29,950 (of which 1,394 are motor bicycles), the present estimated value is £4,500,000, and the current weekly petrol consumption 337,000 gallons.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General the total number of forms, licences, and certificates at present being handled over the counters of post offices.

The main post offices stock 20 different types of licence and 33 application forms and certificates relative to these licences.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General the number of telephone exchanges which are now full; and what percentage that represents of the total number.

163 exchanges are completely full, and at a further 1,039 only priority applications can be accepted. Together these represent just over 20 per cent. of the total number of exchanges.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General the number of applications outstanding for telephones on 31st January, 1952, and the number outstanding on 31st January, 1951.

486,712 on 31st January, 1952, and 543,045 on 31st January, 1951.

asked the Assistant Postmaster-General how many people on the mainland of Ross and Cromarty are now on the waiting list for telephones; and how many have had telephones installed during 1951.

At 31st December, 1951, 269 applications were on the waiting list. 234 lines were connected in 1951.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Air whether he will take steps to allow time spent in a Ministry of Pensions hospital and subsequent treatment to count as continuous service for seniority purposes when the airman re-enlists.

As a general rule only whole-time service in the Armed Forces is taken into account when an ex-airman re-enlists; but if the hon. Member has any particular case in mind I will gladly look into it.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Air whether he has any further report to make on the latest type of Russian jet aircraft seen over Korea.

Reports have been received that types of jet fighter, not identifiable as the standard MIG.15, have been seen in Korea. It is not possible at this stage to make any further comment.

asked the Minister of Civil Aviation if, in view of the tests recently made, he will make a statement about the future use of the South Bank Festival site as a central London air terminal.

I assume that my hon. and gallant Friend is referring to the possibility of using the South Bank site for helicopter operations. We are examining the technical possibilities of the site and the recent helicopter flight was carried out as part of this examination.

asked the Minister of Civil Aviation what type of aircraft it is now proposed to introduce on the service from Renfrew to the Western Isles.

I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond) on 5th March, 1952, and to the answers to supplementary questions.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he will issue a list showing the number of houses and flats completed by each local authority since the war, expressed as a percentage of the number of applicants now on their lists.

The numbers of dwellings completed are shown in Appendix B to the Quarterly Housing Return. Information as to the numbers of applicants is not at present available.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many recipients now receive assistance from the Czechoslovak Refugee Fund; and how many of these are new applicants during the past two years.

I am informed by the Trustees that the Czech Refugee Fund is giving weekly maintenance payments to 521 persons, of whom about 300 first applied for assistance during the past two years. In addition, 890 persons have during the last two years been given financial assistance for emigration and resettlement.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government the names of the county councils in Wales which have made representations concerning the alteration of their electoral divisions since the end of the war.

I have been asked to reply. In Wales since the war the county councils of Anglesey, Caernarvon, Carmarthen and Radnor have made representations. The Monmouthshire County Council have also done so.

asked the Minister of Agriculture on what grounds, he issued a licence for the felling of 201,113 cubic feet of timber on the Ashley Hill Estate, Berkshire, in view of the fact that applications to fell smaller quantities of mature timber are being refused in different parts of the country on the grounds that the quota for 1952 has been taken up.

The Commission considered that the felling of this timber was the best silvicultural treatment to adopt. It was fully intended to arrange that the felling and restocking should proceed in orderly stages over some years, but unfortunately by an error, for which the Commissioners wish to express their regret, a licence was issued for the whole quantity on 22nd December, 1951. Licences issued in England up to the end of February amounted to 57 per cent. of the hardwood quota and 61 per cent. of the conifer quota for the year ending 30th September, 1952, so it is not correct to say that licences are being refused on the grounds that the quota for 1952 has been exhausted.

asked the Minister of Agriculture if he is aware that the Forestry Commission is granting licences to fell timber more favourably to applicants who are prepared to sell the land after clearance to the Forestry Commission than to applicants who are prepared to undertake to replant themselves and if he will issue a direction that this practice is to stop.

The suggestion that the Forestry Commission give favourable treatment to those applicants for felling licences who are prepared to sell their land to the Commission was discussed at a recent meeting of the Home Grown Timber Advisory Committee, and I understand that the Committee accepted the assurances of the Commissioners that it had no foundation in fact. It arises, no doubt, because some owners are unable to undertake replanting, which is normally made a condition of a licence to clear fell, and therefore offer the land to the Commissioners for replanting.

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Defence whether he will take steps to amend Article 682, paragraph 2, of the Royal Warrant, 1940, dealing with Army officers' widows' pensions, whereby an officer's widow is debarred from a pension if, at the time of her marriage, the officer concerned was more than 25 years older than his wife, such amendment to be on the basis that the widow would become entitled to a pension if the officer concerned survived the marriage by 10 years.

I would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the reply which I gave today to my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate (Mr. Vaughan-Morgan).

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Defence whether any decision has yet been reached on the question of the co-ordination of the welfare, recreation and extension of hospitality to allied forces in the United Kingdom.

No final decision has been taken, but Air Chief Marshal Sir George Pirie is, at the request of my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and my noble friend the Secretary of State for Air, and with the assistance of the United States Air Force authorities, undertaking a number of visits to units of the U.S.A.F. in this country and will be submitting a report. Much valuable assistance has already been given by the Women's Voluntary Service and the English Speaking Union.

asked the Minister of Food the pre-war basic usage of oils and fats for each of the following industries, namely, biscuits, cakes, fish and chips, potato crisps, chocolate and sugar confectionery, and other food products; and if he will also state separately for each industry the percentage of basic usage represented, respectively, by current allocation and allocation prior to 29th February last, excluding in both cases allocations for use in exports and incentive allocations related to exports.

I regret that I cannot add to my reply on 28th February to the hon. Member for Sunderland, North (Mr. F. Willey).

asked the Minister of Health what advice the medical officers of his Department, who recently visited Rochdale and Milnrow, gave to the local medical officer of health on the measures to be taken to deal with the epidemic diagnosed as variola minor; and, in view of the fact that this disease is similar to the one described in his Department's review of the Vaccination Acts, 1867 to 1907, as a disease which, if taken by itself, has no more formidable consequence than chickenpox or varicella, if he will amend his regulations so as to remove variola minor from the list of notifiable diseases.

Medical officers of my Department have been to the Rochdale area to study the outbreak of smallpox of the type known as variola minor, and to place their knowledge at the disposal of the local medical officers of health, who have the responsibility for taking such measures as they judge necessary to check the outbreak. As I am advised, it would be dangerous to the public health to do away with notification of this form of smallpox; to do so would also be incompatible with our international obligations.

asked the Minister of Health the average number of National Health Service patients to each service doctor in Sunderland.

About 3,000.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what date has been arranged by which the Crofting Commission are expected to report; and if he will ensure that the Commission are given the opportunity to visit representative crofting districts and hear the crofters themselves.

No date has been arranged by which the Crofting Commission are to report. I understand that the Commission have made arrangements to visit representative crofting districts and to hear the crofters there.

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the number of home-based civil servants serving abroad in various categories such as clerical, executive, works group, including mechanical and electrical engineers, scientific, technical and draughtsmen, respectively.

No central record is kept of home-based non-industrial civil servants serving outside the United Kingdom. I estimate that they number about 9,000, but I am unable to say how they are distributed between various grades.