asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies to what extent Messrs. Baileys intend to develop Malta Dockyard during the next two years; what number of merchant ships have been refitted since the Admiralty handed over to Messrs. Bailey; and what number are expected to be taken in hand within the next two years.

Before Bailey (Malta) Ltd. took over the dockyard on 30th March, 1959, it had been formally agreed that the conversion and re-equipment of the yard and the setting up of the company would be carried out on the basis of a£6¾ million plan. Her Majesty's Government's loan contribution to the plan was to be£6 million. The work of conversion was expected to begin in August, 1959, and to be completed by March, 1964.

Messrs. Baileys in January this year submitted a revised development plan to Her Majesty's Government. This plan would involve a considerable increase in the cost of the conversion and has required the most careful examination. It was by no means certain that the additional expense would be justified in terms of additional work and employment. The recent talks with the company have also been prolonged by the necessity to deal with certain other issues relating to the operation of the financial agreement. I hope that all these discussions will soon be finalised and that the development of the yard will proceed, so that the next two years should see very considerable progress towards creating a commercial ship repairing yard in Malta. Her Majesty's Government stand by their undertaking to provide up to£6 million for the conversion.

In answer to the second part of the Question, I am informed that 132 commercial ships have entered the docks for repairs since Baileys took over, but I am unable to make the forecast called for in the third part of the Question.

Can my right hon. Friend say whether the inevitable delay in the start of the conversion of the Malta dockyard will lead to any redundancy on the part of dock workers?

I hope not, but these talks have been going on for a very long time and I think it is urgent that they should now move to a conclusion.

While we all desire to see the utmost employment in Malta, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is investigating the allegations, made very strongly in Cardiff and Barry, that because of some of the difficulties involved in this matter Baileys are diverting ships which would normally be repaired in those yards to Malta? This is creating, and will continue to create, a lot of feeling. Will the Minister assure us that this will not happen?

That is a new point to me. I have not heard of that anxiety in Wales, but I will certainly look into it.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make a statement about his talks with the Mauritius Ministerial delegation.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will make a statement on his discussions with the Ministerial delegation from Mauritius regarding further post-cyclone assistance for the island.

The Ministerial delegation from Mauritius has had a series of valuable discussions with me and with officials of my Department. I am now in touch with my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer about the conclusions reached in these discussions, and I hope to be able to make a statement next week.

Can my right hon. Friend say whether these discussions will be confined to economic matters or will extend to other matters as well?

They are almost entirely confined to the question of post-cyclone rehabilitation and the contribution of the Government to it.

Will the Minister remind his right hon. Friend that 100,000 people were made homeless in Mauritius? I understand that on the advice of the Minister's own housing expert 25,000 houses are needed. Will the right hon. Gentleman ask his right hon. Friend to be generous, despite the financial stringency imposed by the Treasury?

I am sure that these considerations which have been very much in my mind are also in the mind of my right hon. Friend.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what research is being carried out in Colonial Territories on saltwater conversion.

I am aware of no organised research work in the Colonial Territories directed to the demineralisation of saltwater. The Tropical Products Institute of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is conducting investigations on behalf of Colonial Territories towards the development of new designs of solar stills. The Institute is also in touch with developments elsewhere in saltwater conversion in order to be able to advise Colonial Governments.

In view of the tremendous possibilities of saltwater conversion in some of the more arid parts of the Colonial Empire, will my right hon. Friend keep in touch with the commercial work which is going on in the United States on this subject at the present time?

I know that there is work going on in the United States, and I think that the Tropical Products Institute—indeed, I am sure it is—is in touch with it.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware of the need for the expansion of the Colonial Medical Service, and the need for more men and women trained in medicine to serve in these territories; and whether he will take steps to integrate the Colonial Medical Service with the National Health Service.

I am aware of the need for a steady increase in the numbers of doctors available for service in the dependent territories, and my Department has had a fair measure of success in recruiting doctors to meet requests made by Governments. The large territories in East Africa are increasingly using local doctors qualified at the Medical School of Makerere. Arrangements are already in force for doctors in the National Health Service to serve overseas while preserving their pension rights here, and in cases where the home employers are able to keep a post open while a doctor is serving abroad, secondment is arranged.

Does not the Colonial Secretary agree, with reference to the last part of his answer, that he has there touched upon the difficulty, and does he not realise that I have asked for integration because it would make it easier for personnel to go out and do a term of service without losing their chances of promotion at home? In view of the experience that he had as Minister of Health, will not he look at the matter again and see what more can be done?

We are looking into the matter. I do not believe that integration in that sense is possible or practicable, because there are so many employers of doctors here and so many employers of doctors abroad. However, we are in consultation with the British Medical Association and will continue those consultations to ascertain what arrangements we can make on the lines of the comment in my main answer to the hon. Gentleman.

Will my right hon. Friend make certain that there is an adequate number of non-medical people in the administrative services so that he does not have a farcical situation, such as happened at the hospital in Aden, where the doctors were doing the whole of the administrative work and wasting their special skill?

Yes, that is certainly important. With regard to doctors, there are 50-odd vacancies, and a number of these, which are for specialist posts, are rather difficult to fill.

Will the right hon. Gentleman look at recent schemes for encouraging teachers to go to the Commonwealth, while preserving their promotion rights and other rights here, and consider whether it would not be possible to have a similar scheme to encourage doctors to do a term of service in countries which need them?

We are looking into all these matters. They figured prominently, as the hon. Member will have seen, in the Conservative Party manifesto at the last General Election.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what proportions of children of school age of the Eureopean, Asian, Arab, and African communities in Kenya are attending schools, respectively; what proportions are attending secondary schools; what is the number of multi-racial schools: and what is the annual cost, per child, of education for the different races.

As the answer is long and detailed, I will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it with the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Will the right hon. Gentleman say, in summary, whether these figures indicate that there is segregation in education according to race in Kenya and that those who receive the least aid are the children of the African population, who are the majority?

Part of my answer shows that there are 14 schools which admit children without distinction as to race. Naturally, one would like to see that number considerably increased. I have given the comparable figures as far as I can, but it is immensely difficult to compare like with like because of the greater dependency of the non-African communities on boarding schools at the primary stage of education, which inevitably increases the cost.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what assurances he gave the delegation of the Kenya Civil Service, at their meeting with him on 27th June on the future of Kenya civil servants when the country becomes independent.

I told the delegation that the undertakings given in Colonial No. 306 would, at the appropriate time, apply without qualification to the Kenya Civil Service, but that I recognised that these undertakings, which were given in 1954, might not fully meet the present situation and I was therefore considering whether any further action by Her Majesty's Government was practicable. I also told the delegation that in other territories a clear distinction had been drawn between the responsibilities of Her Majesty's Government for the Overseas Civil Service and for locally recruited members of the Civil Service, but that I recognised that in Kenya the local Civil Service presented exceptional problems of which full account would be taken.

That is good news, but in view of the very difficult situation in Kenya at the moment, would not my right hon. Friend agree that the maintenance of the morale in the Kenya Civil Service is just about the most important thing that is needed at the moment? Will he consider very carefully indeed whether some form of guarantee of a contract of service cannot be given before the goal of independence is reached?

I certainly agree with my noble Friend's first point. On the second point, the undertakings, given in Colonial No. 306 have been observed to the full in all the half-dozen territories which have become independent or have moved towards independence since that date, and they will apply in full to Kenya. However, as I have indicated, there are special circumstances in Kenya, particularly in regard to the locally recruited members, but I have given an undertaking that at the appropriate time those undertakings will be taken into account.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what economic aid has been given to Kenya by the United Kingdom in the last three years; and what proposals he is now considering to stimulate the expansion of Kenya's economy.

From 1st April, 1957, to 30th June, 1960, assistance of£12,889,085 was issued to Kenya in emergency aid, colonial development and welfare grants and Exchequer loans. This excludes issues for general East African development, such as those administered by the East Africa High Commission, but includes some emergency expenditure.

Kenya received an allocation of £5 million under last year's Colonial Development and Welfare Act for the period to 31st March, 1964, and will also receive a share of the £100 million exchequer loans made available under that Act. This will include the funds which we have promised to make available for land development and resettlement. In addition, all the East African territories were relieved on 1st July of the recurrent costs of the East African Land Forces to enable them to devote additional resources to economic and social development. These forces last year cost Kenya an estimated £1,128,000.

In view of the Minister's recent replies in the House showing the Kenya Government's inability at the moment to introduce a minimum living wage, and in view of the known unemployment existing in Nairobi and elsewhere and of the dangers of further outbreaks of lawlessness, which are obviously connected with the poverty and backwardness in Kenya, does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that further steps should be taken urgently now in order to provide full employment there and that he should give a definite date for introducing a minimum living wage.

I do not think that full employment in that sense can be given by additional help in the form of money. The Kenya development plan is running at the rate of nearly£9 million a year, and we are planning to discuss with the Kenya Ministers over the next week or so additional help in relation to land development and resettlement, which I think is perhaps the most urgent of all developments.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how many detainees are at present kept in detention camps in Northern Rhodesia; and what is his policy about releasing them.

None, Sir; therefore the second part of the question does not arise.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what is the number of persons now detained or rusticated or restricted in movement in Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland, and Northern Rhodesia, respectively; and when it is proposed to release them from these confinements and restrictions.

I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT the numbers controlled on 1st July by detention or restriction in each territory. The controls will be relaxed when the Governors are satisfied that they are no longer strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.

While I recognise the new colonial climate since the right hon. Gentleman has been responsible for colonial affairs, is it not desirable that we should put an end to this very widespread detention without trial of people in these territories, and if the right hon. Gentleman is going to crown the work which he has been doing, will he not make this an urgent aim?

Yes, Sir; I am very anxious indeed about this. The day may come when that may be possible. However, I am bound to tell the hon. Gentleman that the reports that are coming in, for example on the security situation in the last day or two in Kenya, are most disturbing indeed, and in the face of that it would certainly be folly to speed up what has been a fast release of detainees in recent months.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what is the cost of keeping the three prisoners from Bahrain on the island of St. Helena; and who bears the cost.

The amount paid by the Bahrain Government, which is responsible for meeting the cost, was£1,760 in 1958, the last full year for which I have figures.

Does it not weigh heavily on the conscience of the Minister, who is a humane and liberal man, that he should be acting as the gaoler for a tyrant in Bahrain, who rigged the trial of these men? Does he not realise that he has a responsibility, under the Colonial Prisoners (Removal) Act, 1869, to behave as if these men had been tried in St. Helena and not in Bahrain, and, if they had been, he would at once have released them? Will he not take some action, because this is one of the most disgraceful episodes that has taken place under his office for many years?

No. Indeed, these people were moved in January, 1957, under the Colonial Prisoners (Removal) Act, as the hon. Gentleman has said, and an appeal in the case of one of them, as he knows, has recently been before the Privy Council. I do not think that my responsibility in relation to the trial goes beyond that.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that his predecessor, through a notice published in an extraordinary issue of the St. Helena Gazette, declared these men to be convicted before they were even tried, that the trial which took place has been declared by every competent observer to have been a sheer farce, that the men were shanghaied to St. Helena by a disgraceful piece of jiggery-pokery by the right hon. Gentleman's predecessor, the Foreign Secretary and the Ruler of Bahrain, all conspiring together? Is it not time that these men were released and compensation paid for the wrong done to them?

These are matters that surely can be investigated, and were investigated very recently indeed, by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. They are not matters, in that sense, for the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the opinions expressed by both my hon. Friends in supplementary questions are shared very widely beyond the limits of any particular party, and that they raise questions of liberty and constitutional law of wide-ranging importance? Is he really satisfied, even though the Privy Council was unable to interfere with what was done in this case, and will he give the House an assurance that he will never again lend himself to such a manœuvre?

I am afraid that I am not at all clear what the hon. Gentleman means by "such a manœuvre". I gather that he is talking about something that happened before these people came directly into my custody by going to St. Helena——

No.

As to the trial itself, that clearly is not a question for me, but there is another Question down on the Order Paper to my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary.

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the comments are not limited to matters which took place before the right hon. Gentleman had any responsibility, but to the alteration of our own law ex post factum in order to give us jurisdiction to imprison other people's subjects without trial, which, until then, we had not got?

If I misunderstood the hon. Member's point, and if I have any responsibility in that matter, of course, I will look at it again in the light of the supplementary questions that have been asked.

Does the Minister realise that these men would never have been convicted in a British court, and that he himself has a responsibility in this matter? Will he not promise the House, because he has a very good reputation for liberal behaviour, that he will look into the whole circumstances of this case and have these men released, because anybody who has been looking into this case, and I myself have interviewed these men—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—agrees that their only crime was that they were asking to have seats on a town council, on health and education committees and so forth, and that this so much irritated the Ruler as to prompt him to take the action he did, with the connivance of the British Government?

I do not think that adds very much to the exchanges we have had. I am not going to try to usurp the functions of my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary or of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. So far as my own responsibility is concerned, I will look at the matter again in the light of the supplementary questions, and I have already given that undertaking to the House.

On a point of order. May I draw your attention, Mr. Speaker, to the fact that there were some half-a-dozen supplementary questions from the other side of the House but that one of my hon. Friends who rose to his feet each time never caught your eye?

I think the hon. Member will have to trust my discretion in these matters. I do not govern it by any irrefragable principle at any time.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how many British and Cypriot lives have been lost in Cyprus since 28th July, 1954, due to armed action and civil disturbances.

142 British and 492 Cypriot.

While welcoming the settlement in Cyprus and deploring the loss of life, may I ask the Colonial Secretary if he is aware that on the date mentioned in the Question—28th July, 1954—his predecessor said that Cyprus could never expect to be fully independent and that there was no question of any change of sovereignty? Therefore, is he aware that these British and Cypriot lives have been squandered by the Gentlemen on the Front Bench opposite, and that those behind him on that occasion applauded his defence of a position which has now been completely thrown away? Will he make sure that this sort of thing does not happen again, because British and Cypriot lives are valuable?

I find it hard to believe that, if the hon. Member had put his mind to it, he could have found a less helpful contribution.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies to what extent he discussed with Archbishop Makarios the question of the stockpiling of nuclear weapons in Cyprus: and what assurances he gave to the Archbishop that the civil population would be adequately defended in the event of a nuclear attack.

The question of stockpiling nuclear weapons in Cyprus or of civil defence against nuclear attack has not been the subject of negotiations during the recent discussions.

Does the Minister recall that when we went from Suez to Cyprus the then leader of the "Suez Group" said that if one hydrogen bomb was dropped on Cyprus, that would be the end of the base and there would be just a hole in the sea? Why should such important considerations be entirely forgotten when we know that Cyprus is the base for a possible attack on the Soviet oilfields of the Caucasus, with possible retaliation?

Without following all the ramifications of that, the hon. Member put a Question to me as to what extent this question was a matter of negotiation in the recent discussions, and the answer to that, simply, is that it was not.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether it is proposed in the White Paper on Cyprus to furnish details, including maps, of the British military base.

Details of the arrangements concerning the retained sites in the Republic and maps showing the boundaries of the Sovereign Base Areas will be included in the White Paper, which will be available later today.

Is not this a surprising innovation? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that when hon. Members ask for information about bases and military details, they are refused on grounds of security? Is this to be made public? Is Mr. Khrushchev to be informed and does this represent a new climate of opinion in the Government?

No, Sir. The right hon. Gentleman, as an ex-Minister of Defence, knows very well that details of these matters are not revealed. The boundaries of the areas, of course, will be shown, and the retained sites, and there are a considerable number in the republic, will also be shown, but their purpose will not be indicated.

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how much has been spent on civil defence in Cyprus since the decision to establish a military base there.

Civil Defence expenditure in Cyprus from 1956 has been £223,000.

Could the Minister say whether there are any proposals for the evacuation of the civil population from Cyprus in the event of a hydrogen bomb attack, and where they are to be evacuated?

I am sure that the answer is "No", but, no doubt, that question ought to be put down to my right hon. and learned Friend.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what specific action he or those who represent him on international bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation or the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation have taken to enable surplus food to be exported to countries part of whose populations are known to be suffering from undernourishment.

My representatives have always supported the efforts of the Food and Agriculture Organisation to find ways and means of furthering distribution of surplus foodstuffs compatible with their internationally agreed principles for surplus disposal and other relevant international arrangements and obligations.

My right hon. Friend has not answered the Question as to what lead we had taken. I asked him, does he not realise that here is an opportunity to help others at the same time as we are helping ourselves, because there is considerable anxiety about the amount of the agricultural surpluses that there are in Europe today? Will he not see that the promises of this Government and of previous Governments are honoured in this matter?

As I have said, we are taking our full part in the Food and Agriculture Organisation, which is specifically charged with responsibility for this, and we shall continue to do so. We, in fact, import something like 50 per cent. of what we eat.

Does not my right hon. Friend realise that we are subscribing very largely to various international funds, the principal part of which goes towards the purchase, mainly from America, of articles for the underdeveloped countries? Why should we not participate in that sort of thing so that the surpluses in Europe, and even in this country, can be exported in that way?

We are playing our full share in the F.A.O. in these matters, but I stress that the F.A.O. considers that the solution of the long-term problem of under-nourishment lies in improving the food productivity of these less developed countries and in the extension of their purchasing power. That is a view which Her Majesty's Government share

I hope that my right hon. Friend will not limit his interest in this matter to what we can do through F.A.O., since we have other important responsibilities, especially towards Arab refugees. Cannot the United Kingdom, perhaps together with other members of the Commonwealth, itself do something direct in real terms?

The point my hon. Friend has raised is always in the mind of Her Majesty's Government.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he is aware that British scientists at Rothamsted have been successful in producing protein suitable for human consumption direct from vegetable matter, and that one manufacturer is at present producing it on a commercial scale; and what steps he is taking through the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation to see that this discovery is used to the full to supplement diets in under-nourished countries.

I know of the work done at Rothamsted on the extraction of protein from green leaves, though I have not been informed that protein is being produced in this way on a commercial scale at present. The results of the Rothamsted investigations have been brought to the attention of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the body primarily concerned with direct techniques for dealing with under-nourishment, and the Director-General, Mr. Sen, has himself visited the Leaf Protein Production Unit at Rothamsted.

Is not this another case in which we ought to try to take the lead, instead of always forwarding the matter to an organisation, and in which we could do something along the lines suggested by my hon. Friend the Member for the Isle of Ely (Sir H. Legge-Bourke)? Does not my hon. Friend realise that the main cause of undernourishment is protein shortage? If he wants a long-term policy to help these people to produce their own food, should he not remember that it is the shortage of protein which is preventing them from doing so?

Yes, but I think that my hon. and gallant Friend will have heard what I said. A great deal of research has been done to see whether protein can be extracted from vegetable material. So far as I know, at the moment there is no way of doing that on a commercial scale.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made towards finding a vaccine to immunise cattle against Johne's disease which does not give a false tuberculin test reaction.

Research is going on into this very difficult problem. I cannot say when it is likely to yield positive results.

As the majority of this country is now designated an attested area, and as there are grave losses from Johne's disease every year, will my right hon. Friend consider allowing those farmers who wish to do so to have their cattle vaccinated in the areas which are now designated attested areas, possibly extending the attestation tests from a one-year to a two-year period?

My hon. Friend is thinking on the right lines and I will consider what he has said, but the first thing we have to do is to get the whole of the country attested, which we will do very soon, and then make further progress with our field trials on vaccination against Johne's disease.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will state the quantity of beef imported into this country, in recent months, to the latest convenient date, from Commonwealth sources and the Argentine.

In the first five months of 1960 total imports of beef from the Commonwealth amounted to 29,000 tons, while from the Argentine during the same period, 84,000 tons were imported.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that farmers will watch with anxiety the rising amount of imports coming into this country in the last few months? Will he consult his right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade in view of the Government's declared policy to see that home production is safeguarded by not allowing excessive imports of Argentinian or Commonwealth beef?

No. If my hon. Friend studies the figures of imports for this year and last year, he will see that imports have not risen. I am very glad to say that there will be an increase in home production during the next twelve months, which will help to meet the marked shortage of beef.

Will the right hon. Gentleman agree that there has been a substantial fall in beef supplies and that we want all the beef we can get from where we can get it?

That is the point I was trying to make to my hon. Friend. It is fair to say that it is not due to any action on our part that we are receiving less imports from the Commonwealth countries, which are finding the United States market more attractive.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has noted that stilboestrol-treated chickens are banned in some countries; and whether he proposes to impose a similar ban in this country.

I am aware that there is some control of the use of synthetic oestrogens in the production of poultry and livestock in certain countries. The use of these substances is being studied by the Agricultural Research Council and I am awaiting their advice.

Does that Answer mean that if the Minister is advised that the practice is not desirable and that there may be some effect upon the health of those who eat the flesh of these chickens, he will take action and ban it here, too?

I would not like to prejudge the expert evidence which is shortly to be made available to me, but I am advised that the risk is very slight and that no cases of harmful effects to human consumers in this country have come to my notice, or to the notice of my right hon. and learned Friend the Minister of Health.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what consideration he has given to the proposals sent to him by the West Kent Main Sewerage Board and other sewerage authorities that dried organic fertilisers from sewage purification plants should be eligible for subsidy under schemes made in accordance with the Agriculture (Fertilisers) Act, 1952.

My Ministry has discussed the technical problems involved in these proposals with a number of sewerage authorities, including the West Kent Main Sewerage Board. At present no wholly organic fertilisers are subsidised, and there would be great difficulties in subsidising them because of the wide variation in plant nutrient content.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a number of sewerage authorities are having difficulty in disposing of these fertilisers because of the competition from subsidised fertilisers? In view of the benefit to farmers and ratepayers by way of rate relief, will the right hon. Gentleman give an assurance that there is no prejudice in his Department against this type of dried organic manure produced by purification plant and that he will pursue the matter more energetically?

I assure the hon. Gentleman that there is no prejudice. The difficulty is that when paying out subsidies one wants to know for what one is paying, and because of the varying content of this form of fertiliser it is much better to stick to our present arrangements.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the increases in farm rents resulting from the Agriculture Act, 1958.

The latest available information shows that the average level of farm rents in England and Wales in the year ended Michaelmas, 1959, was some 8 per cent. higher than in the previous year.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that that justifies all the warnings which we gave when we discussed the Act in Committee? Does he not also realise that the farmer is put in an impossible position in that he sees his income falling and yet is told to reduce farming costs while rents are going up steeply against him as a result of Government policy?

The hon. Gentleman is using rather extreme language. With all his knowledge of agriculture, he knows perfectly well that rents generally have in no way kept up with the extra cost of repairs and so on. With this modest increase in rents, landlords will be able to give better service to tenants by keeping farms and so on in better condition.

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as representing the Minister for Science, what research is being conducted into the carcinogenous effects of using stilboestrol in the production of broiler chickens.

Under certain laboratory conditions, large doses of oestrogens have been found to have carcinogenic properties in laboratory animals. I am advised that stilboestrol is very little used in this country for the production of broiler chickens. Even when it is used, the amounts that remain in the edible parts are very small by comparison with the amounts involved in these laboratory experiments. The Agricultural Research Council is, however, reviewing the possible hazards associated with the use of these substances in agriculture.

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that this chemical is known to produce cancer in animals and that its long-term effects on humans should be the subject of a much wider and more careful research than is apparently going on at the moment? Does not the whole subject of the chemical treatment of food call for much wider research?

The hon. Gentleman should not discount the very detailed examination which has been given to the subject by the Agricultural Research Council. I do not wish in any way to be complacent, but we have had no reports of harmful effects to people resulting from the use of these things.

Has the right hon. Gentleman consulted his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary about this substance? Is he aware that the Home Secretary makes use of this substance and that it is allowed to be given in appreciable doses to people who are imprisoned and whose sexual desire has proved a menace to society generally? Might he not get some information which would be useful to him if he spoke to his right hon. Friend?

That might be considered slightly outside this Question, but I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's comments. As he will realise, the best thing to do is to wait for the report of the expert committee which is looking into the matter.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what steps he is taking to ensure that the provisions of the Protection of Birds Act, 1954, are made known to the public and, in particular, to young people;

(2) on how many occasions since 1957 posters have been circulated to the police and local authorities for display in schools and public places, drawing attention to the provisions of the Protection of Birds Act, 1954.

Copies of a poster summarising the provisions of the Act were distributed in 1957 to local authorities and the police, who were told that further copies could be obtained on request. My right hon. Friend does not think that any further steps on his part are called for at present.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there have been some very regrettable cases of killing and maiming of animals and birds, including rare birds, by young people with firearms? Whilst it would not provide an entirely satisfactory solution, it might help if the provisions of this Act were better known. As it was found practicable to display posters in schools and public places in 1957, would it not be possible to repeat that from time to time?

I very much agree with the hon. Gentleman. The posters are available and some local authorities have asked for further supplies. It would be difficult for my right hon. Friend to send supplies without request. I hope that this Question will provoke further demand.

Can my right hon. Friend say whether, as a result of this Act, some species of birds have not already so increased in number as either to cause an imbalance in other species or have harmful effects on other plant and animal life?

I believe that there have been some representations to that effect, but I do not think that I should like to answer that question with this one.

Would my right hon. Friend consider introducing licensing of airguns for youths under the age of 16, who spend a lot of time using them to kill and maim wild life?

I do not think that arises from the Question on the Order Paper.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received from the chairman of the Advertising Inquiry Committee regarding the sale of certain proprietary drug products, whose formulae have been changed since he introduced his recent regulations, although the original brand names have been retained and in some cases similar claims continue to be made by the makers; and what reply he has sent.

The chairman of this Committee asked for comments on the situation described in the Question. My right hon. Friend replied that he has no power to control the naming or advertisement of medicinal preparations but that he understands that the Working Party on the law relating to medicinal substances will review statutory restrictions on their advertisement.

Would it not be a good thing if, arising from the work of this Working Party, power were taken? Swindles are being perpetrated on the public on a considerable scale. The firm which makes the drug Persomnia, which may now not be sold without a prescription, has produced a new formula and is marketing it under the same name. There are other instances. Is it not time to take steps to protect the public from frauds of this kind being perpetrated?

I have seen the advertisement to which the hon. Gentleman refers. There may well be something in what he says. It is not a matter for the Poisons Board, but it may well be within the jurisdiction of the Working Party to which he has referred.