reference to the cases of the steamships MR. RUNCIMAN: Yes, Sir, they were "Allanton," "Knight Commander," asked at the time the Convention was "Malacca," and "Calchas ;" and whether concluded. As regards Norway, His he intends to bring the subject before Majesty's Government suggested to the the Hague Conference. Norwegian Government that she should join soon after her separate recognition. She has not yet consented to do so. Trawling in the North Sea. MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if the Government will enter into negotiation with the North Sea Powers, with the view of closing against trawling such specified bays and firths as might be agreed on. THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. RUNCIMAN, Dewsbury; for Sir EDWARD GREY): "Allanton."-My right hon. friend begs to refer the hon. Member to his reply to the hon. Member for Hoxton on 22nd November last, stating that, in view of the fact that the Russian Goverment have again refused to entertain the claim, His Majesty's Government, after careful consideration with their legal advisers, have decided that there are not sufficient grounds for pressing MR. RUNCIMAN: Such negotiations the case. "Knight Commander."-His would probably involve the closing of Majesty's Government have not yet waters in the neighbourhood of foreign received the answer of the Russian countries to British vessels, and my right Government to their proposal that the hon. friend cannot enter upon any claim should be referred to arbitration negotiations which would involve such at the Hague. They are now again far-reaching consequences till the whole about to approach the Russian Govern- question of the policy concerned has been ment on the subject. "Malacca."-The considered. claims of the interested parties, which are very numerous, and in respect of which a great amount of documentary evidence has to be examined, have been for some time before the Russian Govern ment. His Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburg is taking all such steps as he properly can to expedite a settlement of the case. "Calchas."-His Majesty's Government are still in communication with the Russian Government with regard to this case. His Majesty's Government will urge that such cases as cannot be settled satisfactorily by direct negotiation should be referred arbitration. to MR. HARMOOD-BANNER: Practically the same Answer was given last year. MR. RUNCIMAN: My hon. friend must realise that negotiations of this nature must absorb a great deal of time. North Sea Convention, 1882. MR. MORTON (Sutherland): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Governments of Sweden and Norway have been asked, in accordance with the additional article of the North Sea Convention, 1882, to adhere to that Convention. North Sea Fishery Investigations. MR. CATHCART WASON: I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if, during the last five years, when the Biological Association have been investigating the North Sea, collecting specimens, etc., there is any record that their investigations have been examined, collated, tabulated, and brought up to date; and if, in view of the decision of the Treasury that the grant will be continued for another year, and that a Committee is appointed to consider the question in all its bearings, any further expenditure will be limited to completing the work in hand, and that the "Goldseeker" and "Huxley" will be set free and placed at the disposal of the Scottish and English fishery departments for the protection of the fishermen from the ravages of trawlers. another year pending the Committee's Report, and no change can therefore be made during that period in the purpose for which the two vessels mentioned are now employed. Lutterworth Rabbit Snaring Convictions. MR. LEHMANN (Leicestershire, Mar ket Harborough): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been directed to the sentence passed by two Leicestershire justices at Lutterworth petty sessions on Thursday last, whereby Ernest Pike, charged with snaring rabbits upwards of five years ago, was practically consigned to prison for eight months, although the man declared that he had been earning his living honestly during the intervening five years, which does not appear to have been denied; and whether he will inquire into all the circumstances of the case with a view to revising the sentence if the facts are as stated. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W.): My attention had not been previously directed to this case, but I am making inquiries into it. Jury Service. *MR. REES : I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has perused the remark made by Mr. Justice Darling in Court III., King's Bench, on 1st March, 1907, regarding the resummoning of jurors when only a short period had elapsed since the last service of such jurors, which the judge said was unreasonable, and to provide against which care might have been taken; and whether he will take such action as may be possible for the protection of individuals who are called several times in a given period during which others on the list altogether escape service. MR. GLADSTONE: This is not a matter in which I have any authority to to take action, but the Under-Sheriff of London, to whom I have referred, points out that as there are over 16,000 jurors summoned during the year, it is impossible altogether to prevent the contingency of one being summoned twice within a short period, owing to a change Tuberculosis Milk. MR. H. H. MARKS (Kent, Thanet): I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, under the regulations of the Local Government Board, the owner of a cow certified by veterinary surgeons to be suffering from tuberculosis is entitled to sell the milk of such cow for human food, so long as the disease has not attacked the udder of the cow; whether the owner who is prohibited from offering for sale the milk of the cow, by reason that the animal is certified by veterinary surgeons to be suffering from tubercular disease of the udder, is entitled, under the regulations of the Board, to offer the animal for sale as a milch COW or for slaughter for human food; and whether in England, where a cow is found to be suffering from tubercular disease of the udder, there is any obligation under the regulations of the Board, either on the owner who has been in the habit of selling the milk of such cow or on the veterinary surgeon who has certified it to be suffering from tubercular disease, to make any notification of the occurrence of the disease to any public authority. THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. JOHN BURNS, Battersea): The Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders of 1885 and 1899 prohibit the sale of the milk of a cow suffering from tubercular disease of the udder, but the prohibition does not extend to the milk of a cow otherwise affected by tuberculosis. These Orders deal with dairies, cowsheds, and milkshops, and do not relate to such matters as those referred to in the second part of the Question. Nor do they require notification in cases of the kind mentioned in the last part of the Question. Where, however, there is in force a Local Act containing what are known as the Milk and Tuberculosis Clauses, a dairyman who supplies milk within the district, and who has in his dairy a cow affected with tuberculosis of the udder, must give notice of the fact to the medical officer of health of the district. MR. H. H. MARKS: I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, in view of the statement in the second interim Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the relations of human and animal VOL. CLXX. [FOURTH SERIES.] tuberculosis, that cow's milk containing bovine tubercle bacilli is clearly a cause of tuberculosis, and of fatal tuberculosis, in man, he will consider the necessity of measures more stringent than those at present enforced being taken to prevent the sale or the consumption of such milk. MR. JOHN BURNS: I am giving consideration to the Report of the Royal Commission, and in connection with it will bear in mind the point to which the hon. Member refers. Grimsby Distress Committee. MR. C. DUNCAN (Barrow-inFurness): I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to a Report submitted to the Grimsby Distress Committee wherein several cases of excessive overcrowding are mentioned, in one case it is stated that six separate families were living in a six-roomed house, each tenant paying 2s. 6d. to 3s. per week for a single room, and in other cases people are living under such conditions as to make physical health and moral decency impossible; and what action, if any, he proposes to take in this matter. MR. JOHN BURNS: I have not seen the Report to the Distress Committee referred to in the Question, but I am communicating with them on the subject. Epsom Telephone Wire Dispute. MR. RAWLINSON (Cambridge University): I beg to ask the PostmasterGeneral whether his attention has been called to the fact that certain telephone wires belonging to the Post Office have been carried across two properties known as Hylands and Hyland House, Epsom, without the consent of the owners or occupiers of the said properties; whether this was done with his authority; and whether he will take any and what steps to prevent similar trespasses occurring in other parts of the country. THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON, Tower Tower Hamlets, Poplar): My attention has been called. to the matter. I am having inquiry made. Women Education Inspectors. SIR W. J. COLLINS (St. Pancras, W.): I beg to ask the President of the 2 E Board of Education how many women are now employed as inspectors by the Board of Education on the elementary and secondary branches respectively; what are the duties and salaries attached to such offices; and are such appointments temporary or permanent. THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. MCKENNA, Monmouthshire, N.): The women inspectors in the service of the Board of Education are not attached to, nor employed exclusively in, any one branch of the Board, but are under the direction of the Chief Woman Inspector. The salary of this latter post, as of the fourteen other women inspectors, will be found set out fully in the Estimates, with the exception of two additional women inspectors temporarily employed at a salary of £250 per annum. The women inspectors of the Board are employed in general inspection, including the inspection of infant schools, elementary schools for girls, the training colleges for elementary school teachers (women), and the training schools for intending teachers of domestic subjects. Brigg Election Literature. the rules of the House to put extracts or quotations from newspapers or leaflets in Questions. On other occasions he had had the sting taken out of Questions of his own. MR. RAWLINSON asked whether it was in order for one hon. Member to impute to another in a Question a deliberate false statement of fact, more especially as in this case reference to the daily papers showed that the pamphlet was quite accurate. *MR. SPEAKER: I must take the blame for this Question's having appeared on the Paper in this form. The hon. Member for East Denbighshire brought me the Question last Monday and proposed to ask it as a matter of urgency. I glanced hastily through the Question and saw that it was not a matter of urgency and did not come within the urgency rule; and I recommended him to put it down in the ordinary way. When it was handed to the clerks at the Table they understood that I had passed the Question, and therefore accepted it. If my attention had been called specifically to the form of the Question I certainly should not have passed it. MR. HEMMERDE (Denbighshire, E.): I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General MR. STANLEY WILSON (Yorkshire, whether his notice has been called to a E.R., Holderness) asked whether the leaflet issued in thousands on the eve of Attorney-General realised that in the the poll in the Brigg Division of Lin- last ten days tea had gone up 1d. or 14d. colnshire in the following terms and in in the pound. the Liberal colours: Do you know the price of your tea is, going up at once threepence a pound (see the daily papers), this is under a Radical Govern ment, vote for Sheffield, who wants to make it cheaper; whether the issue of such a leaflet, containing what is obviously a deliberate false statement of fact, by a candidate or his agent can be dealt with under the criminal law or under the law relating to corrupt and illegal practices at Parliamentary elections; and, if the answer to the last question is in the negative, whether his Majesty's Government will consider the advisability of extending the criminal law and the law relating to corrupt and illegal practices at Parliamentary elections to cover all deliberate false statements of fact. MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.) asked whether it was permissible under THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL (Sir JOHN WALTON, Leeds, S.): I am interested in a pure proposition of law. The alleged misrepresentation contained in the leaflet to which my hon. friend refers does not reflect on the character or conduct of any person, but only on the Administration. There is not, so far as I am aware, any penalty under the criminal law or the Corrupt Practices Act which can be inflicted upon those who are responsible for the issue of the document. When the revision of the law relating to elections takes place, and it cannot, I think, be very long deferred, the suggestion of my hon. friend should receive the consideration which it deserves. MR. HARMOOD-BANNER: Is not this exactly the same statement which was issued by the Liberal Publication Abbey Craig Quarries, Stirling. MR. EUGENE WASON (Clackmannan and Kinross): I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he is aware that quarrying for whinstone on the Abbey Craig, Stirling, has been resumed after a cessation of upwards of twelve years; whether the County Council of Stirling propose to use steam engines in the quarry to crush the blocks into road metal there, which would necessarily cause much noise, smoke, and dust, in addition to the usual blasting, with its risk of accident to visitors and others and the Wallace monument; and, if so, whether care will be taken that the Abbey Craig, on which the national monument to Wallace stands, will not be injured by the quarrying. THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. SINCLAIR, Forfarshire): I have made inquiries, and now now learn that Irish Untenanted Lands-Administration of the Labourers Acts. MR. GINNELL (Westmeath, N.): I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if it be the check the emigration of the young and policy of the present Government to healthy people, for want of land, from rural districts in Ireland which contain large untenanted areas, will be promote that policy so far as possible under the Local Government Board expressly to existing law, and especially will he get encourage the acquisition of tracts by the use of Form No. 6 under the Labourers Acts, and the exercise of the power conferred by Sections 8 and 20 of the Act of last year. The hon. Member also had the following Questions on the Paper on the same subject: To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in view of the actual inability of ratepayers and labourers to obtain Form No. 6, or any information on its use, the repeated assertions of clerks of district councils that neither this form nor instructions on the acquisition or disposal of tracts, under Sections 8 and 20 of the Labourers Act, have reached them, and the absence of |