asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what consultations he has held with colonial Governments in regard to immigration from their respective countries to the United Kingdom, and with what result.

Regular and comprehensive reports on all aspects of conditions in the United Kingdom, with particular emphasis on employment, are made available by the British Caribbean Welfare Service to the Governments in the West Indies, from where at present the bulk of the immigrants come; this, supplemented by radio and Press publicity, does much to ensure that intending emigrants shall be fully aware of their prospects here.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what assistance was given by the Hong Kong Government to the Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade when he recently visited Hong Kong for the purpose of negotiating with the cotton industry; and whether he will give an assurance that effective assistance will be accorded to any future negotiators, and in particular that the Government of Hong King will use its best endeavours to ensure that bodies fully representative of the island's industry will be made available for discussions.

The purpose of Sir Frank Lee's visit was to have exploratory discussions with representatives of the Hong Kong cotton industry to see whether they would be willing to enter into a voluntary scheme for the limitation of exports to the United Kingdom. He was given every assistance by the Hong Kong Government in making contacts with representatives of the local industry. Similar assistance would be given to any future negotiators. The answer to the last part of the Question is in the affirmative.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) upon what basis he plans, in his proposed scheme for compensating the victims of crimes of violence, to assess the compensation payable on the one hand to the dependants of a murdered breadwinner and on the other hand to a maimed victim;(2) if he will, for England and Wales and for Scotland separately for the latest convenient period, state in relation to the compensating of victims of crimes of violence the estimated annual and capital cost of National Insurance payments now made and the estimated annual and capital cost of compensation similar to the Industrial Injuries Scheme.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, having now further studied the case for compensating victims of crime and violence, he will make a statement on Government policy in this matter.

I am studying a proposal put forward by the late Miss Margery Fry that compensation should be paid by the State to the victims of crimes of violence on a scale similar to that under the Industrial Injuries Scheme and should take the form of payments analogous to the injury, disablement and death benefits at present paid under that Scheme. On the basis of the benefits payable in 1956 and the level of crimes of violence in that year it has been estimated that if payments were made under a funded scheme the annual cost would be about £200,000. The National Insurance payments would, on the 1956 basis, amount to about £50,000 a year. These figures relate to England and Wales only; I regret I have no corresponding figures for Scotland.Miss Fry's scheme and the difficult complex of problems involved in the suggestion that the State should pay compensation to the victims of crimes of violence are under consideration, but I am not yet in a position to make a statement of Government policy.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for organising a detention centre to meet the requirements of Lincolnshire, and so avoid the necessity of sending boys convicted of petty crime, but in need of punishment, to Borstal.

I am anxious to provide more detention centres as soon as it is practicable to do so. I cannot yet say when it will be possible to establish centres to serve the courts in Lincolnshire.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the estimated net inward movement of immigrants into the United Kingdom from India, Pakistan, and the Caribbean countries, respectively, during each of the years 1956 and 1957; and for the current year to the latest available date.

The following are the figures:

ESTIMATED NET INWARD MOVEMENT
Country of origin	1956	1957	1958 (January to May)
India	5,500	6,500	3,350
Pakistan	2,000	5,000	4,250
Caribbean countries	30,000	23,000	7,800

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what date he made a grant to the Cambridge Department of Criminal Science to assist it in its investigation into crimes of violence; and when he expects to receive its report.

The Home Office makes an annual grant towards the cost of the research on the causes of delinquency and the treatment of offenders carried out by the Department of Criminal Science at Cambridge. The Department has been working on several projects of interest to the Home Office and the grant is not appropriated to any one of them. I understand that the Department expects to be able to produce the final report on the study of crimes of violence in the Metropolitan Police District in the first half of 1959.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will grant an extension of time to permit Mrs. D. Frederich, a German citizen, to remain longer in this country to stay with her married sister, a naturalised British subject, who is crippled with arthritis and needs care and attention; and whether he will give this matter urgent consideration as Mrs. Frederich is due to leave on 29th July.

I am having inquiries made and will write to my hon. and learned Friend. Mrs. Frederich will not be expected to leave the country before I have done so.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations what measures are being taken, or are contemplated, by Her Majesty's Government to ensure that the recession does not unduly diminish United Kingdom emigration to Canada.

The regulation of immigration into Canada is entirely a matter for Her Majesty's Government in Canada. Migration from the United Kingdom to Canada during the first quarter of 1958 was running at about the same average rate as for the similar period in a normal year.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, in view of the cut of one-third in the number of assisted passages from the United Kingdom to New Zealand, what measures are contemplated in his Department to aid British emigrants to that country.

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Surbiton (Mr. Fisher) on 26th June.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations how much of the £1,500,000 authorised last year for purposes connected with United Kingdom emigration to the Commonwealth overseas remains unspent; and the Government's proposals for its disbursement.

Expenditure in the financial year 1957–58 was about £180,000, out of £184,575 voted by Parliament for expenditure under the Commonwealth and Empire Settlement Acts.As I explained in the debate on the Second Reading of the Commonwealth Settlement Act, 1957, the figure of £1,500,000 is the financial limit for any one year prescribed by the Commonwealth and Empire Settlement Acts. Within this limit Parliament can be asked to provide funds for joining with other Commonwealth Governments or with public authorities or with public or private organisations in carrying out agreed schemes for affording joint assistance to migrants from this country. It is not a sum which is automatically available each year.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations if he will request that the agenda for the forthcoming Commonwealth Economic Conference at Montreal include the future of the Commonwealth jute growing and manufacturing industries, with a view to ensuring that changes in employment in the various national industries shall take place gradually and subject to planning for full employment.

The general scope of the Conference, as described in the communiqué issued after the meeting of Finance Ministers in Mont Tremblant last autumn, would enable such matters as the hon. Member mentions to be raised, but I cannot indicate what special issues the Conference may agree should be included on the Agenda.

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations if he will state the agenda or the subjects which Her Majesty's Government will seek to have discussed at the forthcoming economic conference in Montreal.

It is not the practice to announce in advance the agenda of meetings of Commonwealth Ministers, but the purposes of the Conference were indicated in some detail in the communiqué issued on 1st October, 1957, after the meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers at Mont Tremblant, of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.

asked the Minister of Education the number of grammar school places awarded to those students who took the test in the Willesden schools for the years 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958, respectively.

The numbers are: in 1955, 448; in 1956, 457; in 1957, 415; and in 1958, 423.

asked the Minister of Education (1) how many boys and girls in the excepted district of Newcastle-under-Lyme will pass from primary to secondary schools this year; what increase this represents over last year; and to what extent the number of grammar school places has increased, compared with last year;(2) how many boys and girls in the excepted district of Newcastle-under-Lyme have passed from primary to secondary schools in each of the last five years; and to what extent the number and proportion of grammar school places have increased in this period.

The following is the information:

	No. of children living in Newcastle-under-Lyme and passing from primary to secondary schools	No. taking up grammar school places	(b) expressed as a percentage of (a)
Year	(a)	(b)
1954	1,129	210	19·5
1955	1,237	223	18·0
1956	1,153	215	18·6
1957	1,184	219	18·5
1958	1,409	217*	15·4
* The allocation of grammar school places this year has not yet been completed, and the final number will probably be a little higher.

asked the Minister of Education the difference between the programmes of requirements for school buildings made by local authorities to his Department in 1957; and to what extent they were reduced by the policy of the Government.

The value of projects submitted by local education authorities for the 1958–59 school building programme was about £100 million. This was about twice the value of projects started in previous years. I have authorised projects totalling £51 million to start in 1958–59.

asked the Minister of Education the estimated requirements for school buildings made by the Bristol Education Authority in 1956, 1957 and 1958; and the final amount which was permitted by the Government.

The authority proposed school building projects to the value of £2·3 million for the two years 1956–58, £1·2 million for 1958–59 and £0·7 million for 1959–60. The programmes authorised were of £1·1 million, £0·6 million and £0·35 million, respectively.

asked the Minister of Education if he will study the advisability of making entrance to universities by written examination only and issuing instructions that the name of the school of the students seeking entry to university should not be made known to the examiners.

This is a matter for the universities themselves.

asked the Minister of Education, in view of the difficulty that VIth-formers of just less than outstanding ability have of finding which university places are available for such candidates, whether he will invite the universities to pool information and applications so that the schools for which he has responsibility may be able to make the fullest use of the available university places.

No, but the hon. Member may be interested to read the copy I am sending him of a report on the procedure for the admission of students to universities which has recently been issued by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals.

asked the Minister of Education whether he will now allow work to start on the new secondary modern school at Thetford, especially in view of current developments towards the Borough's expansion of industry and population which form part of the London County Council's overspill programme.

This project has been included in the school building programme approved for the Norfolk Local Education Authority for 1959–60. I cannot yet say precisely when it will be possible to start work on it.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of the change in the economic situation since his last Budget, as witnessed by the various alterations in the Bank Rate and the changes in credit restrictions, he will introduce an autumn Budget to reduce taxation.

The Finance Bill enacting the Budget of 15th April is still before Parliament. My right hon. Friend sees no need in present circumstances to make further changes in taxation.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will indicate the nature and amounts of grants made by the Development Commission to appropriate bodies, etc., in Wales for the financial year ended 31st March, 1958.

In the financial year ended 31st March, 1958, my Department, on the recommendation of the Development Commissioners, approved grants amounting to £39,159 and loans amounting to £107,300 to organisations in Wales. Details of these grants and loans are given below. They exclude assistance given from the Development Fund to various organisations which operate both in, England and Wales, since it is not always possible to identify the specifically Welsh element in such expenditure.These latter organisations include, for example: the Rural Industries Bureau, which gives technical advice and instruction to rural industries; the Rural Industries Equipment and Workshop Loan Funds which makes loans to rural craftsmen in certain categories; the National Council of Social Service, which provides loans towards the cost of permanent village halls; and the National Federation of Women's Institutes, which receives grants from the Development fund in respect of some of its activities.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the estimated yield of tax under Schedule A for the present year, and the cost of assessing and collecting it.

About £100 million. I regret that the cost of assessing and collecting this tax cannot be segregated from the general cost of administering the Revenue, which amounted to 3·22d. in the £ of the revenue collected in 1956–57, the latest year for which the figures are available.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a further statement concerning the Government's policy in regard to the granting of loan sanction to local authorities, in view of the relaxations recently announced in capital expenditure in other fields.

I have nothing to add to my right hon. Friend's statement of 3rd July, 1958.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the purchasing power of the £ sterling, taking 1925 as 20s., in 1938, 1945, 1955 and today.

Taking the internal purchasing value of the £ as 20s. in 1925 the comparable figures for subsequent dates are 1938, 22s. 7d.; 1945, 13s. 9d.; 1955, 8s. 10d., and May, 1958, 8s. For the period before 1938 these estimates are based on the Cost of Living Index; from 1938 onwards they are based on the Consumer Price Index brought up to date by the Index of Retail Prices.

asked the Minister of Health what examination is being made into the causes and prevention of poliomyelitis, other than by injection of vaccine; and to what extent the tests made of United States and Canadian Salk vaccine are more or less severe than the tests made on similar vaccines in Great Britain.

In addition to the epidemiological investigations that are made when cases of poliomyelitis occur, research is proceeding all the time into various aspects of the disease and its prevention. A highly technical and complicated matter like comparison of the various testing procedures cannot readily be dealt with within the scope of a Parliamentary Answer, but I dealt with the subject of testing Salk vaccine very fully in the debate in the House on 1st May, and perhaps the hon. Member would refer back to what I said on that occasion.

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will make a statement on the dispute concerning the compulsory acquisition of the Westburn Lane site for the extension of St. Andrew's University.

I will make a statement on this subject as soon as possible.

asked the Minister of Health whether he will indicate, separately, the amounts received for the sale of each of the hospital farms in Wales, together with equipment and stock.

The amount received in the case of each of the farms that have been sold for land and buildings, equipment and livestock are as follows:

	£
Whitchurch Hospital, near Cardiff	12,161
South Wales Sanatorium, Talgarth	31,365
Mid-Wales Hospital, Talgarth	22,194
Abergele Sanatorium	23,139
Llangwyfan Hospital, near Denbigh	5,610
Pen-y-val Hospital, Abergavenny	13,064
North Wales Hospital, Denbigh	25,052

These figures do not include any receipts from sales of fodder and garnered crops.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress is being made in the production of a satisfactory blood test to enable Johne's disease to be diagnosed in an early stage.

Work is going on at my Ministry's Central Veterinary Laboratory at Weybridge in co-operation with the Agricultural Research Council to determine whether it is possible always to diagnose Johne's disease in the early stages by blood testing. If and when such a test is evolved this would enable infected animals to be identified and eliminated. The results so far have been inconclusive, but I can only hope that successful results will ultimately emerge.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) on what principle fourteen Governments were chosen to provide personnel for the United Nations Observer Corps in the Lebanon;(2) whether the United Nations Observer Corps in the Lebanon is responsible direct to the Secretary-General or to the Security Council; to whom the reports of its observations are sent; who pays the 100 observers: and what are their terms of service.

The United Nations Organisation in the Lebanon, set up to carry out the Security Council Resolution of the 11th of June, consists of a three-man observation group which is made up as follows:

Mr. Galo Plaza (Ecuador)—Chairman. Major-General Odd Bull (Norway)—Executive Member. Mr. Rajeshwar Dayal (India)—Member.

The members of this group were approached, on his own initiative, by the Secretary-General. Working for this group are military observers in the field, provided by fourteen countries at the invitation of the Secretary-General. In making these approaches and appointments the Secretary-General was acting in accordance with the terms of the Security Council Resolution of 11th June which are as follows:

"Decides to dispatch urgently an observation group to proceed to Lebanon so as to ensure that there is no illegal infiltration of personnel or supply or arms or other materiel across the Lebanese borders;

Authorizes the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps to that end;

Requests the observation group to keep the Security Council currently informed through the Secretary-General."

As will be seen from this the observation group is responsible to and reports to the Security Council through the Secretary-General.The three members of the observation group receive an honorarium from the general budget of the United Nations. They are assisted by a small administrative staff of United Nations officials who are paid by the United Nations. The military observers in the field are seconded to the United Nations by their Governments, who continue to pay their salaries. From its general budget, the United Nations pays travel expenses to and from the Lebanon together with a daily subsistence allowance for all concerned.There is no time limit fixed for the service of the observation group, the administrative staff or the military observers, since it is impossible to judge how long they may be required.

asked the Minister of Defence whether he will indicate the acreage of land held by the Service Departments, separately, in Wales and the acreage held both by lease and purchase and where located.

The figures are given in the following table:

County	Leasehold	Purchased	Requisitioned
Admiralty
Carmarthenshire	2	74	—
Glamorgan	78	19	—
Monmouthshire	—	1,576	—
Pembrokeshire	—	3,043	3
Totals	80	4,712	3
Grand Total		4,795 acres
War Office
Anglesey	—	184	—
Brecknock	8	30,011	—
Caernarvonshire	—	309	—
Cardiganshire	—	178	—
Denbigh	43	53	34
Flint	143	309	99
Glamorgan	568	204	46
Merioneth	19	9,431	4
Pembrokeshire	9	6,736	—
Radnorshire	—	7	—
Totals	790	47,422	183
Grand Total		48,395 acres
Air Ministry
Anglesey	2	1,409	52
Caernarvonshire	—	724	9
Carmarthenshire	781	925	—
Denbigh	—	263	—
Flint	4	1,533	—
Glamorgan	289	1,895	—
Pembrokeshire	186	1,119	—
Totals	1,262	7,868	61
Grand Total		9,191 acres

asked the Minister of Labour what steps he is taking, in consultation with the trade unions, to encourage the development of apprenticeship schemes to meet the annual increase of young persons leaving school.

The Trades Union Congress will be represented on the new Council which is expected to be established before the end of this month. This follows the recommendation in the Report "Training for Skill" that a central body should be established by industry to keep apprenticeship and training arrangements under review. The Central Youth Employment Executive will shortly be inviting youth employment committees to promote local consideration and discussion of the Report in consultation with employers' associations, trade unions, and those concerned with technical education.

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs, in view of the fact that there are over 40,000 building operatives unemployed and that the number of applicants on the housing registers of English towns and cities are high and increasing, why the number of houses built in the first five months of 1958 was 17,000 less than in the corresponding period of 1957; and if he will give local authorities permission to build to their capacity.

I explained fully during the debate on the Address on 11th November last year the reasons why the Government considered that some restraint must be placed upon housing in the interests of the economy as a whole. These reasons are still valid today and explain why the number of houses completed this year is lower than last year, and also why the housebuilding programmes of local authorities must be related to an over-all programme and not simply to the capacity of each authority to build.