asked the Secretary of State for Scotland the costs involved by his Department of Agriculture in taking over the sheep stock at Achnabourin, Sutherland, in 1923, and in creating three holdings.

The farm of Achnabourin was used for the creation of three new holdings and the enlargement of seven others. The Board of Agriculture for Scotland paid the outgoing tenant for his sheep stock, which was valued at £5,030 5s. 11d. Most of the stock was acquired from the Board by the new tenants at the outgoing valuation less acclimatisation value, the remainder being sold in the open market. The cost of forming and equipping the holdings and enlargements was £852 6s. 11d., of which £351 6s. 5d. was met by grant and the remainder by loan to the tenants.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many certificates of disrepair have been issued under the Housing (Repairs and Rents) (Scotland) Act.

This information is not available, but I propose to ask local authorities in due course for a return.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland the average time a tubercular patient must wait for an operation in Lanarkshire; and how this time compares with that for the rest of Scotland.

From three to six months, according to the type of case, from the date on which the surgeon decides that a major thoracic operation is the appropriate treatment. Comparable figures for different areas are not available since the various waiting lists are not compiled on the same basis.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many surgeons, fully trained in thoracic surgery, are available in each of the Scottish hospital regions; what accommodation, in terms of beds, is available in each tuberculosis thoracic surgery centre; the present average waiting time for patients requiring this type of operation in each area; the number or estimated number of patients waiting for this operation at each regional centre; and how many have elected in each region to have the operation performed as private paying patients.

I am having the available information extracted as far as practicable in the form sought by the hon. Member, and will circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT as soon as possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he is aware that, because of the long wait by tuberculosis patients throughout the North and Islands of Scotlands to have thoracic operations pea-formed, some patients have been forced to have the operation carried out as private paying patients, at a cost of about £300; whether he is satisfied that this problem is being dealt with as efficiently as possible; and if he will make a statement on his plans to increase the accommodation and the number of fully-trained surgeons.

I am aware that a few patients have been operated upon under private arrangements in Aberdeen, but the number is very small in relation to the numbers treated otherwise. I have been concerned for some time at the relatively long waiting list in the North of Scotland, and it was with this in mind that I arranged with the British Red Cross Society for the use of facilities at Tor-Na-Dee Sanatorium. In addition, the North-Eastern Regional Hospital Board is considering the possibility of increasing the volume of this work at Waodend Hospital, Aberdeen. So far as can be foreseen, the accommodation provided and the number of thoracic surgeons now available or in training are likely to be sufficient to deal with the problem in Scotland as a whole, once current waiting lists have been overtaken.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware of the adverse criticism, details of which are in his possession, of two Scottish sheriffs regarding the ambiguous wording of the Housing (Repairs and Rents) (Scotland) Act, with particular regard to interior decoration, work, and building; and if he will introduce amending legislation to make clear the intentions of this Act.

I have seen Press reports of two judgments given under this Act, one of which refers to the intricacies of its provisions. I cannot agree that this constitutes a justification for amending legislation.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that the food and recreation facilities provided for Scottish National Health Service patients at the Mont Blanc Sanatorium, Leysin, Switzerland, are unsatisfactory; that the recreational facilities at the Wolfgang Sanatorium, Davos, are, similarly, unsatisfactory; and if he will investigate the grievances of these patients with a view to remedying them.

I would refer the hon. Member to the replies which I gave on 23rd November to the hon. Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie (Mrs. Mann).

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he is taking to increase the production of watercress in Scotland.

None.

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation the total of motor taxation collected in Scotland between 1st April, 1953, and 1st April, 1954.

The receipts of motor vehicle, etc., duties collected in Scotland in the year ended 31st March, 1954, were £6,007,092.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what payments were made towards the cost of water supplies and sewerage schemes, respectively, in Scotland under the Rural Water Supply and Sewerage Acts for the first nine months of 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954.

The respective amounts are:

(1) for water: £451,369; £831,120; £1,097,633; £1,096,869, and

(2) for sewerage: £45,024; £219,206; £110,163; £184,721.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland why school attendance officers in Scotland receive £2 a week less than school attendance officers in England and Wales.

The salary scales recommended for these officers are negotiated between employers and employees on one of the National Joint Industrial Councils for Local Authorities Services (Scotland). I am not a party to the negotiations, and I do not know what considerations the Council takes into account in reaching its decisions.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what changes he proposes to make in the development of education in Scotland.

I assume that the right hon. Member refers to the advances foreshadowed in the Gracious Speech. The main task must be to continue at an accelerated pace the provision of schools in new housing areas. In each of the past three years the work done has increased considerably, but it is necessary to expand the programme still further. The programme will include a larger proportion of secondary schools, but the organisation of secondary education in Scottish rural areas will not, as in England, require the provision of a substantial number of additional new schools.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland to publish a table showing the number of grants for university education made by each local education authority in 1953; and the number, per 10,000 child population, in the area of each authority.

The reply is as follows:

Education authority		University awards made for first time in session 1953–54
		Number	Number per 10,000 of the population of school age
Aberdeen (County)	…	59	23·0
Angus	…	37	24·7
Argyll	…	16	17·6
Ayr	…	105	20·0
Banff	…	29	32·2
Berwick	…	9	25·0
Bute	…	9	37·5
Caithness	…	10	25·6
Clackmannan	…	11	16·7
Dumfries	…	30	21·6
Dunbarton	…	54	20·5
East Lothian	…	12	14·0
Fife	…	88	17·5
Inverness	…	45	33·6
Kincardine	…	16	33·3
Kirkcudbright	…	11	22·0
Lanark	…	153	16·3
Midlothian	…	19	11·0
Moray and Nairn	…	20	21·3
Orkney	…	5	14·3
Peebles	…	7	33·3
Perth and Kinross	…	40	20·0
Renfrew	…	84	15·8
Ross and Cromarty	…	28	29·2
Roxburgh	…	12	18·5
Selkirk	…	3	10·3
Stirling	…	87	28·2
Sutherland	…	6	28·6
West Lothian	…	30	18·9
Wigtown	…	7	12·5
Zetland	…	16	53·3
Burghs
Aberdeen	…	81	29·0
Dundee	…	48	17·1
Edinburgh	…	172	25·3
Glasgow	…	272	15·1
All Scotland	…	1,631	19·7

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland why the parents of one of the pupils of whom he has been informed who joints the school conveyance, which passes the end of his road, are compelled to pay the cost of his transport to the junior school in Bettyhill while all the other pupils travel free.

My information is that the Sutherland education authority has been meeting the cost of conveying this boy to school since he was transferred to the secondary department of Farr Junior Secondary School, Bettyhill, in August. Last session the boy was allowed exceptionally to attend the primary department of Farr school instead of the local school at Skerray on condition that his parents paid his fare.

asked the Secretary of State for War why qualified medical assistance was not given to Private Donald Hope, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, before his death; and whether he will make a statement.

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he has investigated the circumstances in which Fusilier Donald Hope of the Lancashire Fusiliers died suddenly on 25th November; and what consideration he has given to changes in the present system by which orderlies without, proper medical training are responsible for deciding whether or not recruits reporting sick should appear before a doctor.

A court of inquiry has been held and I shall receive the proceedings, with the views of the authorities, within the next few days. As soon as they are available they will be most carefully considered by my right hon. Friend, who will then be prepared to answer a Question on this subject.

asked the Secretary of State for War what is to be the future employment of the Cambridgeshire Regiment in the light of Her Majesty's Government's decision on the role of Anti-Aircraft Command.

The details of the proposed reorganisation are still under examination, so that I cannot yet say what the future of a particular regiment will be.

asked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that the limited finance available to the Home Guard is handicapping its activities and discouraging recruiting; and if he will review the whole of the financial arrangements with a view to giving more help and encouragement to those who are serving in this valuable part of our defences.

Expenditure as a whole is necessarily limited, and I do not think that the Home Guard is any worse off in this respect than the rest of the Army.

asked the Secretary of State for War when memorial headstones will be erected on graves of deceased British Service men at the Military Cemetery at Fayid, as promised to parents of such Service men.

I understand that my hon. Friend is referring to the graves of men who have died since the war. Permanent headstones for all these graves are on order, and should be delivered this month. I hope that they will be shipped in January and they will be erected as soon as they reach Egypt.

asked the Secretary of State for War what steps he is taking to ensure that all graves of deceased British Service men at the Military Cemetery at Fayid will be tended and maintained after the completion of our evacuation of Egypt.

Arrangements are being made with the Imperial War Graves Commission for the graves of those who have died since the war to be cared for with the war graves in the adjoining cemetery for which the Commission is already responsible.

asked the President of the Board of Trade what progress has been made regarding the two North-Eastern Trading Estate Company's factories in Sunderland which are still vacant.

My right hon. Friend has agreed to sell one factory to Brian Mills, to grant a lease of another to Thorn Electrical Industries Ltd., and to grant a lease of a third which was empty to Lamson Paragon Ltd.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the number of persons, men and women, separately, employed in the North-Eastern Trading Estate Company's factories in Sunderland on the latest available date.

On 28th August, 1954, the latest date for which official figures are available, 1,565 men and boys and 2,516 women and girls, making a total of 4,081, were employed in these factories.

asked the President of the Board of Trade the number of persons, men and women, separately, employed in the North-Eastern Trading Estate Company's factories on the latest available date.

On 28th August, 1954, the latest date for which official figures are available, 20,018 men and boys and 26,427 women and girls, making a total of 46,445, were employed in these factories.

asked the President of the Board of Trade, in view of the fact that the McKenna duties were imposed in 1915 as a temporary war-time measure, and the big wages and profits that are now being earned in the motor car manufacturing industry behind the shelter of the 33⅓ per cent. tariffs imposed, if he will set up a committee to examine the possibility of reducing these duties in exchange for the lowering of foreign tariffs, especially American, on British exports from industries which are less prosperous than motor manufacturing; and if he will make a statement on the position.

The duties to which my hon. Friend refers were renewed annually until 1924. But in 1925 they were re-introduced without limit of time.The United Kingdom has signified its willingness, by its membership of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, to enter into reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements for lowering tariffs. This object can best be achieved by multilateral negotiations.

asked the President of the Board of Trade why he has refused to issue a licence to Cooke and Ferguson Limited, to export switchgear to China, whereas that firm is permitted to export similar goods to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Information given by exporters about their export plans is confidential, and I should prefer, therefore, not to disclose information about particular named firms. On the general question, the House is aware that the list of goods which it has been agreed internationally may not be sent to China is much wider in scope than the list which applies to the Soviet bloc. The China embargo list includes switchgear; the Soviet bloc embargo list does not.

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is now in a position to make a statement about cross-Channel pleasure day trips without passports.

My right hon. Friend has discussed with my right hon. and gallant Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department this question, which raises technical issues of considerable difficulty affecting the control of immigration, and which he is now considering.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the official proposal of the Prime Minister of France on the need for four-Power talks next May; and whether he will state the policy of Her Majesty's Government on this proposal.

Yes. The policy of Her Majesty's Government was clearly set out in the tripartite reply of 29th November to the Soviet Notes of 23rd October and 13th November. I would also refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's speech last night.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will publish as a White Paper the Notes recently exchanged between the Western Powers and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Yes. I hope to lay a White Paper before the House during the course of this week.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many United Kingdom personnel are employed in the various international agencies in Europe in which the Government participates, such as the Council of Europe, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, the British delegation to the Coal and Steel Pool, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; their cost to the taxpayer; and the cost of the various United Kingdom grants to these bodies.

The staffing of such international agencies as the Council of Europe, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is the responsibility of their Secretaries-General, and Her Majesty's Government do not have precise information showing how many of the members of these staffs are United Kingdom nationals. The cost of staff and the general expenses are shared by member Governments according to Formulæ agreed between them. For the current year the contributions of Her Majesty's Government to the principal organisations are as follows:

Council of Europe	£165,306
O.E.E.C.	£289,800
N.A.T.O.	£1,070,382
Brussels Treaty Organisation	£9,426

The cost of the United Kingdom Delegation to the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community is approximately £50,000 per annum, and the staff number 14.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the cost of United Kingdom contributions and grants to the United Nations Organisation and to its Specialised Agencies.

The figures for actual expenditure on subscriptions to the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies in 1954 are as follows:

	£
United Nations	1,360,942
World Health Organisation	340,964
U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation	373,051
Food and Agriculture Organisation	223,813
International Labour Organisation	277,069
International Civil Aviation Organisation	90,416
World Meteorological Organisation	6,990
International Telecommunications Union approx.	28,200
Universal Postal Union	3,915

In addition the United Kingdom contribution to the Expanded Technical Assistance Programme for 1954 is £650,000, all of which will be spent through the United Nations or the Specialised Agencies, while the following contributions have been made to extra-budgetary funds of the United Nations:

	£
United Nations International Children's Emergency	200,000
United Nations Relief and Works Agency (for year ended 30th June, 1954)	1,785,714
United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency (for year ended 30th June, 1954)	5,000,000

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what assistance is being given to those members of the Venezia Giulia police who were evacuated from Trieste to this country on the withdrawal of the Allied Military Government.

Some 34 members with their families were evacuated to this country, and are being maintained in hostels, pending their resettlement. Provision for this expenditure will be made in a forthcoming Supplementary Estimate of the Foreign Office Grants and Services Vote. In the meantime the costs are being met from advances from the Civil Contingencies Fund.

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what saving is estimated to result in the first full year in the expenditure of the National Assistance Board in regard to the augmentation of retirement pensions, sickness and industrial injury benefits, widow's benefit, and unemployment benefit, respectively, as a result of increase in these benefits and pensions proposed by his Department.

As the reply contains h number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government if he is aware of the dissatisfaction created by the provisions of the Valuation for Rating Act, 1953, applying to shops and offices; what consideration he is giving to the matter; and what action he proposes to take to deal with these aspects of this particular Act.

I would refer the hon. Member to the statement which I made in reply to my right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn. West (Mr. Assheton) last Monday.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what payments were made towards the cost of water supplies and sewerage schemes, respectively, in England and Wales, under the Rural Water Supply and Sewerage Acts, for the first nine months of 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954.

The payments made were as follows:

WATER SUPPLY SCHEMES
1951	1952	1953	1954
£	£	£	£
823,954	1,079,977	1,456,011	1,768,132

SEWERAGE SCHEMES
1951	1952	1953	1954
£	£	£	£
479,644	1,150,710	1,288,078	1,404,823

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government the total amount per annum now being contributed by local authorities towards the cost of providing theatrical entertainment under the provisions of Section 132 of the Local Government Act, 1948.

I regret that this information is not available.

asked the Minister of Labour the total number of men medically examined prior to call-up for National Service in 1951, 1952 and 1953, respectively; and the approximate total cost of these examinations in each year, including fares, subsistence and payments for lost working time.

The following are the figures:

NATIONAL SERVICE MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS
Year			Number	Approximate cost
				£
1951	…	…	245,308	410,000
1952	…	…	274,288	446,000
1953	…	…	232,954	414,000

Medical fees, fares, subsistence and compensation for loss of earnings are included in the costs, but not the cost of non-medical staff and other administrative costs.

asked the Minister of Labour if he will suspend the call-up of John Elwyn Thomas, of Rhoslan, Amlwch, details of whose case are in his possession.

I wrote to the hon. Member about this case on 20th August. Mr. Thomas has now been granted further postponement of call-up which does not expire until 9th April next, so the question of suspension of call-up does not arise.

asked the Minister of Labour if he is aware that facilities are no longer available in Eire for the recruitment of nurses for the National Health Service; and what alternative arrangements he is making.

The liaison office of the Ministry of Labour in Dublin, which used, among other functions, to assist girls from the Irish Republic in making arrangements to take up nursing work in hospitals in this country, was closed in October last. Hospital authorities within the National Health Service have been informed of the closure and advised to make their own arrangements with applicants who wish to enter nursing employment or training in Great Britain. There is no reason to suppose that the closing of the office will have any substantial effect on the numbers coming forward.

asked the Minister of Labour why he proposes to close down the Bridgend Hostel, near Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.

This hostel is among those to be closed in accordance with the decision announced on 4th November in reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham (Mr. Carr). My right hon. and learned friend is writing to my hon. Friend.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware of the growing practice in private companies of voting bonuses to directors in the form of credit to loan or current accounts, and showing the directors as creditors of the company, thus deferring the deduction of Income Tax from these bonuses indefinitely; and what action he is taking to check this practice.

Where a private company has voted a bonus to a director, the crediting of that amount to a loan or current account over which he has control is normally treated as amounting to payment, and the appropriate tax must then he handed over to the Revenue.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many wage-earners there are in the United Kingdom with standard weekly wages of £5 or under, £5-£8, £-£10, and over £10; and the comparable figures in each of the last five years.

I regret that the information is not available.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what weight was given to food in the price index for all consumer goods and services for helping to calculate that the value of the £ had fallen to 18s. 9d. from October, 1951, to September, 1954; and what weight was given to food in the Interim Index of Retail Prices used for calculating that the value of the £ had fallen to 18s. from October, 1951, to September, 1954.

The answer to the first part of the Question is about 30 per cent., and to the second about 40 per cent.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress is being made in the expansion of the Imperial College of Science and Technology and the resiting of the activities which will be displaced from South Kensington by that expansion.

The Government's plans for the expansion of Imperial College were announced on 29th January, 1953. It was then said that they involved giving the College first claim on those parts of the rectangular island site in South Kensington (lying between Prince Consort Road and Imperial Institute Road) which it did not already occupy.Building work is already in progress on the northern part of the site in South Kensington—works of the order of £1·2 million, including equipment. Further progress will soon require the release of some other parts of the site from their existing use. The displacement of these activities and their rehousing elsewhere has presented difficult problems, but with the help of my right hon. Friends the Minister of Education and the Minister of Works, we can now see the way clear.My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has authorised new building work to proceed in Bloomsbury to enable existing London University activities (such as the Warburg Institute) to be transferred there in due course from South Kensington. In order to release the accommodation now occupied by the Aeronautical Collection of the Science Museum, approval has been given for the erection of part of the North Section of the Natural History Museum and the completion of the new Centre Block of the Science Museum. These are of course very worthwhile museum developments in their own right.In order to reduce to a minimum the disturbance of the Indian Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, plans have been approved, involving some building, which will enable a substantial part of this collection to be permanently on view in the main building of the Museum. Alternative accommodation will be needed eventually for that part of the Royal College of Art which is housed in the same building as the Aeronautical Collection. But this is not an immediate problem. Nor does any difficulty arise over the Royal College of Music, which will remain in its present premises.There remains the important question of the future of the Imperial Institute. The Government are actively considering this in relation to the Imperial College plan, and hope to reach an early decision.