Macedonian Reform. MR. LYNCH (Yorkshire, W.R., Ripon): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any progress has been made with the scheme for reforming the judicial system in Macedonia. THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. RUNCIMAN, Dewsbury; for Sir EDWARD GREY): It is understood that the AustroHungarian and Russian Governments are formulating a scheme of judicial reform which will ultimately be submitted to the Powers. His Majesty's Government are not yet aware of the substance of this scheme. Hague Conference. MR. PIKE PEASE: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he can now announce the date upon which the Hague Conference will be opened. MR. RUNCIMAN: My right hon. friend cannot say definitely till the Russian Government announces the date; probably it will be early in June. MR. BYLES (Salford, N.): Are the Government prepared to give the House the names of the delegates who will represent this country at the Conference? MR. RUNCIMAN: I must ask for notice of that Question. Murder of German Missionary in Persia. MR. LYNCH: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any official information on the subject of a claim made by Germany upon the Persian Government for an indemnity in connection with a recent murder of a German missionary in Persia; whether, in default of satisfaction, the German Government have demanded a cession of land; and, if so, whether he can state the particular region in which this land is situated. Norwegian Trawlers in the Moray Firth. MR. SUTHERLAND (Elgin Burghs): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the communication received from the Norwegian Minister stating that orders had been issued to warn all owners of Norwegian trawlers fishing in the Moray Firth to cease from doing so, and not to expect the support of their Government in case of proceedings being taken against them in Scotland, he can state what further action, if any, has been taken by His Majesty's Government; and what is the present stage of the negotiations. MR. RUNCIMAN: My right hon. friend is still in communication with the various Departments of His Majesty's Government concerned, and is not in a position to make any further statement. MR. RUNCIMAN: My right hon. friend is informed that а modus MR. RUNCIMAN: My right hon. vivendi is being arranged between friend is informed that a cash payment Germany and the United States. only, which does not involve any political Nothing is at present settled, but it is condition, if demanded as compensation.probable that negotiations for tariff with Foreign Powers in the sense desired by the hon. Member. arrangements will follow. In the event of British trade being affected, His Majesty's Government will of course enter into such communications with the United States Government as may be required. The Hague Conference and the Limitation of Armaments. MR. LONSDALE: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the question of the limitation of armaments is included in the formal programme of the Hague Conference. MR. RUNCIMAN: The subject was not included in the original programme of subjects for discussion which was communicated to the Powers in April last, but since then the question of discussing it at the Conference has been. under consideration. No further statement can be made about the programme of the Conference till the final invitation is issued by the Russian Government, who have been communicating with His Majesty's Government and other Powers respecting it. Moray Firth. MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in view of the fact that some years since Sir Colin Scott Moncrief, at a meeting of delegates of Foreign Powers held at Christiania, carried a resolution to the effect that any area of water which a Government closes for scientific purposes should remain closed against all nationalities, will he consider the expediency of communicating with the Foreign Powers, with a view to effect being given to that resolution in respect of the Moray Firth, seeing that those waters were closed by the British Government for the purposes of scientific research. MR. RUNCIMAN: As the hon. Member is no doubt aware, scientific research was only one of the reasons which led His Majesty's Government to sanction the by-law of 1892, which closed the Moray Firth to trawling. In view of important questions of general policy which are involved, and with which more than one Department of His Majesty's Government is closely concerned, my right hon. friend is unable to give any undertaking that he will communicate North Sea Fisheries Investigation MR. WEIR: I beg to ask the Presi Ident of the Board of Trade if he will state what sum has been expended under the International Scheme for North Sea Fisheries Investigation by each of the participating Powers, viz., Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Mr. RUNCIMAN: My right hon. friend has been requested by the Board of Trade to reply to this Question, and he would refer the hon. Member to the Answer which he gave him to a similar Question on the 5th instant. † Australia and the Suez Canal. MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.) I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury when the correspondence between His Majesty's Government and the Australian Government about the Suez Canal dues will be published for the information of Members. MR. RUNCIMAN: Papers on the subject have already been laid on the Table on 4th March. Income Tax. MR. GODDARD CLARKE (Camberwell, Peckham): I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any special instructions have this year been issued to income-tax collectors as to increased exertions in the collection of the tax in South London; and, if so, whether such instructions may be so modified as to prevent undue pressure being brought to bear upon the smaller income-taxpayers of the community. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. ASQUITH, Fife, E.): No such instructions have been issued. Licence Duties. ton, N.): I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor MR. CHIOZZA MONEY (Paddingof the Exchequer if his attention has been directed to the fact that brewers and distillers pay merely nominal licence duties, £1 and £10 respectively, + See Col. 613-14. irrespective of the size of their understanding on the part of the hon. businesses or profits; and if he can Member. Convicted persons are not sent see his way to introduce graduated to remand homes. Young girls conduties, which shall have regard to the victed and dealt with under the First scale upon which brewing or distilling is Offenders Act are sometimes released on carried on by the various licensees. condition of their going to voluntary homes, and, when that is done, the practice in London is to send them there in charge of some one from the home, or, failing that, in charge of the matron. Possibly, however, the hon. Member refers to unconvicted prisoners remanded to the remand homes. In London such cases are sent in charge of a matron in a cab, but a police constable accompanies them. If the hon. Member will give me particulars of any case he has in view, I will make inquiries. MR. ASQUITH: The licence duties are as stated. The principle of graduated ad valorem duties is not applied (nor is it, in my opinion, applicable) to licences which confer no monopoly privilege, but which are issued principally for registration purposes. West Indian Ecclesiastical Charges. MR. HAROLD COX: I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to a sum of £1,372 10s. charged upon the Consolidated Fund for the salaries of the ecclesiastical establishment in the West Indies; how long this charge has been in existence; what is the aggregate sum that has been paid by the taxpayers of the United Kingdom on this account; and whether the taxpayers of Jamaica or of any other West India island make any contribution towards the salaries of the clergy of the United Kingdom. MR. RUNCIMAN: The charge for the ecclesiastical establishment in the West Indies has been borne on the Consolidated Fund since 1824. The aggregate sum paid amounts to £1,126,960. In 1868, provision was made by Act of Parliament for the gradual reduction and final extinction of the charge. Although the payments in 1905-6 amounted, as shown in the Finance Accounts for that year, to £1,372, 10s., the annual sum now payable has been reduced to £522 10s. Treatment of Girl Offenders. MR. MYER: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can see his way to advise that, in future, when young girls convicted under the First Offenders Act are sent by magistrates to a remand home they shall be accompanied by a female warder through the public streets instead of, as now, by a police officer. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W.): The terms of the Question seem to indicate some mis MR. MYER: I noticed a case last Tuesday. Crime in the Holderness Division of MR. J. MACVEAGH (Down, S.): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the total number of indictable offences reported to the police in the Holderness Division of Yorkshire in the last twelve months for which statistics are available; in how many of these cases prosecutions were instituted; in how many cases juries refused to convict the accused; and how many offences were committed in the different branches of serious crime. MR. GLADSTONE: I can give the fiures for the Police Division of Holderness and the Borough of Beverley, which together include nearly the whole of the Parliamentary Division of Holderness. In the year 1906, 101 indictable offences were reported to the police-three offences against the person, five offences against property with violence, ninety-one offences against property without violence, and two cases of attempted suicide. Eighty-six persons were prosecuted, but most of them were dealt with summarily. Twelve persons were committed for trial, of whom three were acquitted and nine convicted. MR. REDDY (King's County, Birr): How many cases came from the district of Tranby Croft? MR. MOORE (Armagh, N.): How many of the crimes were agrarian and in how many cases did the jury refuse to agree? MR. GLADSTONE: I have given the House all the information I have. MAJOR SEELY: But take such a case-would the woman under such circumstances be rejected? MR. GLADSTONE: If found to be suffering from a dangerous disease I take MR. MOORE: Will the right hon. it she would be rejected. Gentleman inquire? MAJOR SEELY asked whether the MR. GLADSTONE: I do not think right hon. Gentleman would amend the it necessary. Administration of the Aliens Act. MAJOR SEELY (Liverpool, Abercromby): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a woman, named Monita Greplowski, who was on her way to join her husband at Glasgow, was rejected by the immigration board at Grimsby on 1st March and ordered to return to Russia; and, if so, will he take steps, by amending the Aliens Act, to prevent a recurrence of such cases. MR. GLADSTONE: I have made inquiry and find that the woman was refused leave to land on the ground that, in the words of the Act, she was, owing to a disease, viz., trachoma, likely to become a detriment to the public. She could produce no evidence of her marriage, had not seen her husband for two years, and had no letter from him or other evidence that he wished her to join him. The Medical Inspector stated that the trachoma was in an advanced stage, and this opinion was confirmed by a medical man acting on behalf of the woman. Another medical man was a member of the Board which heard the case. The Board inform me that they were unanimously of opinion that in these circumstances and as the woman was of a class in which it would be impossible for her to receive such treatment as would result in a cure of her disease-assuming that a cure is in any case possible-her admission would be a danger to the public. MAJOR SEELY: Are we to understand that if a woman on her way to join her husband is found to be suffering from trachoma she will be refused admission? MR. GLADSTONE: There was no proof she was on her way to join her husband. Act MR. GLADSTONE: The hon. and gallant Member has not indicated the direction in which he desires the Act to be amended. Does he wish so to amend it as to admit aliens suffering from dangerous contagious diseases? MAJOR SEELY: Certainly. AN HON. MEMBER: Free trade in disease now. Returns of Industrial Warfare. MR. CHIOZZA MONEY: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the his attention Home Department if has been directed to the fact that while, according to Return No. 25 of 19th February, 1907, 8,678 men were killed and 23,773 men were injured in British warlike operations in the six years 1898-1903, about 25,000 persons were officially reported as killed and 700,000 officially reported as wounded in industrial operations in the United Kingdom in the same six years; and whether, in view of the loss of life and health in peaceful operations, he can promise that by suitable Amendments of the Factory and other Acts, and by stringent administration, he will do his utmost to protect the industrial population. *MR. GLADSTONE: The figures of persons killed or injured during the mentioned by industrial six years accidents, given in the General Summary of the tenth Abstract of Labour Statistics issued by the Board of Trade appear to be killed, 26, 470, and injured, 615,352. They include accidents in the shipping, railway, and other industries, as well as the industries for which my Department is more particularly responsible. I wish to point out, however, that these figures are of no avail to indicate the risk involved in industrial occupations, unless account is also taken of the numbers employed. I hope the House needs no assurance from me that the safety and health of our workpeople is a matter of daily and hourly anxiety to the Departments concerned. Tied Houses. MR. SEARS (Cheltenham): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in the forthcoming legislation relating to licensing, the Government will introduce any provisions in the interest of the consuming public and of the tenants dealing with the tied house system, and to make the holder of a licence a bona fide trader resident on the premises, and not restricted to the sale of beer and spirit of any one particular brewery firm. MR. GLADSTONE: I am afraid I must ask to be excused answering this Question before the Bill is introduced. Colliery Life Saving Appliances. MR. BRACE (Glamorganshire, S.): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken, if any, to bring to the notice of the colliery owners and their officials in the United Kingdom the information. collected by the two representatives sent to the Courrières Collieries, France, to investigate, on behalf of the British Government, the cause of that explosion and the method adopted in rescue work after that explosion; and, in face of the fact that two brave South Wales colliers have lost their lives at the recent explosion in Wales in consequence of there being no rescue apparatus at that colliery, what steps he proposes to take to prevent, so far as possible, a recurrence of such a catastrophe as has happened to the two rescuers at Llwynhendy Colliery. MR. GLADSTONE: The Courrières Report was published, and summaries of it were communicated to the trade papers, and I have every reason to believe that both were widely read. It was of course referred to the Royal Commission. As my hon. friend is aware, that Commission, on which the English, Welsh, and Scottish miners are represented, has been examining for some time the causes of explosions in mines, the best safeguards to adopt, and also the question of life-saving MR. GLADSTONE: Of course the subject has been receiving attention for some time past, and I am sure those now inquiring into the matter are fully possessed of the responsibility and urgency of the matter, and that they will report as soon as possible. MR. BRACE: Will steps be taken to make known at once the opinion of experts as to the most suitable appliances without awaiting the decision of the Royal Commission? MR. GLADSTONE: I have already given instructions that inquiries shall be addressed to colliery owners with regard to organisation, so that as soon as the Commission make up their minds which is the best apparatus the organisation for its use may be well advanced. Advisory Committee on Commercial SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend): I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will enlarge the terms of reference to the Advisory Committee on Commercial Intelligence to cover questions relating to Colonial as well as Foreign tariffs; and whether he will in future submit all proposed changes in the tariffs of our Colonies to the Advisory Committee for consideration by them. I beg also to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the fact that the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade was established to supply information, inter aiia, upon matters relating to Foreign and Colonial tariffs, he will submit th |