MR. JOHN BURNS: I am aware of the resolution passed by the Liverpool bodies have passed similar resolutions in Distress Committee, and that other favour of the adoption of schemes for works of a national character. For reasons which I have previously explained I do not contemplate proposing legislation to amend the Unemployed Workmen Act. Lieutenant of Ireland. The following needful amendments of the Unemployed particulars relate to England and Wales, Act, as promised at the opening of the and give the latest figures I am at present Parliament. present able to supply. Education.-The total expenditure was approximately £22,124,000 in 1904-5, and £24,083,000 in 1905-6. The total amount estimated to have been raised by rates for this pur pose was £9,618,000 in 1904-5, and £11,197,000 in 1905-6. Poor Law Administration. The total expenditure on matters exclusively relating to the relief of the poor was £13,851,981 in 1904-5, and the proportion of this amount cal culated to have been directly borne by rates was £10,478,966. Registration of Voters, and Main Roads.-The total expenditure in respect of the registration of voters (not including the remuneration of revising barristers) in 1903-4 was £257,837, and in respect of main roads was £2,407,042. The proportion directly borne by rates in these cases cannot be stated, but no specific grant was received by local authorities from the Exchequer in respect of them. Gross Estimated rental and rateable value.-At the commencement of 1904-5 the total gross estimated rental was £243,061,842, and at the commencement of 1905-6 £248,426,532. At the same dates the total rateable value of rateable hereditaments (including the annual value of property in respect of which contributions were made by the Government in lieu of rates) was £199,355,590 and £202,858,961 respectively. Inspection of the Scottish Schools. MR. D. A. THOMAS (Merthyr Tydvil): To ask the Secretary for Scotland if he can state the amount estimated to be required in the year ending 31st March, 1908, to meet the administration expenses in London of the Scottish Education Department, and also the cost of inspec tion of Scottish schools. (Answered by Mr. Sinclair.) The hon. Member will find this information under the head "Public Education, Scotland " (Class IV., Vote 8), in the Civil Service Estimates, which are now available to Members. Local Government Expenditure. MR. R. PEARCE : To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what were the amounts provided in the United Kingdom, in the financial years to April, 1905, and April, 1906, out of taxes for education, and, if any, for Poor Law administration, registration of voters, and main roads, or allocated out of taxes for those purposes in each of those years, distinguishing, if possible, the amounts for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland for each of those purposes. Liverpool Distress Committee. MR. CLYNES (Manchester, N.E.): To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware of the resolution passed by the Liverpool Distress Committee stating the difficulties experienced in finding work for the unemployed under the limitations of the Act of 1905, and asking Parliament to amend the Act; whether he is aware of similar resolutions being passed by other committees and representative bodies, (Answered by Mr. Asquith). The and of Government money being granted materials for an Answer to this Question to relieve immediate distress in St. are not available in the Treasury, and Helena and to start an indus ry there to they would have to be collected from provide employment; and whether he a number of other departments. It can now take further steps to meet would, therefore, be more convenient more adequately the distress existing if my honourable friend would move in our own cities and towns or introduce for a Return. It has been decided that Indians should | India should be eligible for appointment be eligible for appointment from England subject to a maximum limit of 10 per cent. I trust that the number of Indians qualified under the rules who will apply for appointments will be such as to permit this limit to be worked up to. The hon. Gentleman is doubtless aware that the ordinary means of access for Indians to the Public Works Department is through the Indian Engineering Colleges. Indian Natives and the Public Works Department. SIR H. COTTON: To ask the Secretary of State for India whether it is proposed to appoint any properly qualified Indians from England to the Public Works Department in India during the year 1907. (Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) It was decided in 1905 that natives of VOL. CLXX. [FOURTH SERIES.] from England, subject to a maximum limit of 10 per cent.; this decision does not come into force till 1908; but one native of India, belonging properly to the batch of appointments of 1907, has been already appointed in advance, after a shortened period of training, in consequence of the closing of Cooper's Hill College. Clare Potato Crop Failure. MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.): To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will inquire into the necessity of the Government granting some money towards the purchase of seed potatoes for the small farmers of Clondigad and Lissycasey, county Clare, where the potato crop was a complete failure. 2 L (Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The hon. Member appears to have been misinformed as to the state of last year's potato crop in this district. The Local Government Board have already inquired into the matter, and are satisfied that there was no serious failure of the crop there. The Board have received no representations that the people will be without seed, and the reports of their inspectors have led them to form an opposite conclusion. Myshall Sanatorium for Consumptives. MR. A. ROCHE (Cork): To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the corporation of Cork have, by a unanimous vote, decided to oppose the establishment of a sanatorium for consumptives at Myshall owing to the proximity of the proposed site to the Dripsey River and the consequent possibility of pollution of the water supply to the city of Cork; and that at a recent Local Government inquiry the military public health officer for Cork district gave evidence against the site, on the ground of the possibility of such pollution; and whether under these circumstances it is intended to proceed further with the scheme. (Answered by Mr. Birrell). The Local Government Board have not yet received their inspector's Report in this matter. The Board will, before arriving at a decision, give full consideration to the evidence received at the inquiry and to the opinion of the local authorities. Volunteer Adjutants. COLONEL LONG (Worcestershire, Evesham): To ask the Secretary of State for War are adjutants of Volunteers, whose terms of service as adjutants expire during this or the next two months, to vacate their appointments and be replaced or to continue pending the introduction of the new system proposed. (Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) For the present there will be no change in existing arrangements, and the appointments to adjutancies in Volunteer corps will proceed in the usual manner. | ALTY *THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIR(Mr. EDMUND ROBERTSON, Dundee): The "Lord Nelson" is being from India, which is the principal source built at Jarrow by Palmer's Shipbuilding of supply. Company, and Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth & Company only hold the contract for the erection of the gun mountings of the ship. The contracts of both firms contain the fair wages clause, and the Admiralty have received no previous complaint of its infringement. If the hon. Member can give me any specific information on this point, I will have immediate inquiry made. MR. THORNE (West Ham, S.): Is it not the duty of the officials who inspect the construction of these war vessels to see that the wages clause is carried out? *MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON asked for notice of that Question. Boys in the Home Fleet. MR. HUNT (Shropshire, Ludlow): I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if it is intended that the boys to be trained in the Home Fleet should form an integral part of the full complement of the Nore Squadron; and, if so, in what sense can that squadron be said to be fully manned. *MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON : I can only repeat what I have already said in a printed reply to a Question asked by the hon. Member for King's Lynn on 21st February, that it has always been the practice of the Admiralty to treat details of complement as confidential. MR. HUNT: Are the boys rated as supernumeraries? [No Answer was returned.] The Opium Traffic. MR. SMEATON (Stirlingshire): I beg to ask the Prime Minister whether, seeing that crime in Burma has increased during the past twenty-five years with the grow. ing consumption of opium, that the Report just issued shows how far opium is a predisposing cause of the crimes committed by Chinese in the Transvaal, and that the opium habit is being fostered among the Kaffirs, he will take into consideration the urgency of the steady suppression of the opium traffic in and + See (4) Debates, clxix., 1014. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. MORLEY, Montrose Burghs): I am not sure that crime has increased in Burma owing to the greater prevalence of the opium habit. The percentage of opium consumers to the total jail population of Burma is less than it was in the past. The subject, my hon. friend may be certain, is receiving the closest attention of His Majesty's Government from every point of view. MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford): Is it not the fact that the Indian the sale of opium, and thus encouraged Government opened shops in Burma for the consumption of it? MR. MORLEY asked for notice of that Question. Afghan Amir's Visit to India. cliffe): I beg to ask the Secretary of MR. ELLIS (Nottinghamshire, RushState for India whether, during the recent visit of the Amir of Afghanistan to India, there has been any exchange of political views with him. MR. MORLEY: No. There was no exchange of political or military views; no proposals of a political character were made on either side, nor was any modification whatever suggested or discussed of the relations between Great Britain and Afghanistan as established by the treaty. signed at Kabul, on 20th March, 1905. *MR. REES (Montgomery Boroughs) asked if the Governor-General in Council had been congratulated on the successful result and tactful treatment of this visit. MR. MORLEY: I have no information on that subject. Import Duties on Indian Goods. MR. REMNANT (Finsbury, Hoxton): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India what is the present approximate average rate of duty levied on all goods imported from India into each of the following countries; United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. CHURCHILL, Manchester, S.W.): The revenue from this tax in 1905-6 amounted to £34,000. For full information as to the assessment and incidence of the tax, I must refer the hon. Member to the "Memorandum on the Taxation of Natives in Northern Nigeria" by Sir Frederick Lugard, which has been laid before the House, and of which copies will be available for distribution in a few days. Trinidad Customs Tariff. MR. SUMMERBELL (Sunderland): I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if the Government of Trinidad have appointed a Commission to revise the local Customs tariff; that the sittings of such Commission are all being held in private; and that not a single representative of the working class has been appointed a Member of the said Commission; and, if so, and considering the importance importance of the question to the labouring classes, he can see his way to the appointment of a representative of labour on the Commission. MR. CHURCHILL: The Secretary of State is not yet in possession of any information with regard to the Commission in question beyond that which has appeared in the local Press. When a Report is received the point raised by the hon. Member will be considered. Foreign Concessions in Persia. MR. BOWLES (Lambeth, Norwood): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the notification, in the Persian newspaper recording the proceedings of the new Persian Assembly, of the appointment by that body of a Commission to inquire into the concessions granted to British and other Foreign subjects within the Persian dominions; whether he has received any Reports on this subject from His Majesty's Legation at Teheran; and, if so, whether he can lay any such Reports upon the Table. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir EDWARD GREY, Northumberland, Berwick): The latest information which has reached His Majesty's Government on this subject is contained in a telegram from His Majesty's Minister at Teheran, dated 1st March, and is to the effect that the matter, which has been the object of interpellations in the Persian Assembly, has now been dropped. It appears the matter is revived there will hardly unnecessary to lay Papers, and unless be any Papers on the subject in general. Execution of a British Subject at MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAY (St. Andrews Burghs): I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if the official Report of the trial and execution of the British subject, A. J. Tingle, for robbing a tram conductor at Warsaw has been received; and, if not, will he ask for it. SIR EDWARD GREY: Reports have now been received from His Majesty's Consul-General at Warsaw to the effect that, on 4th February last, a gang of young men, armed with revolvers, attacked and robbed a tramway conductor in that town. The gang then fled and one of them, who was immediately arrested with the conductor's money-bag in his possession, proved to be Adolphus Joseph Tingle, aged twenty-one, a locksmith by profession, and a British subject. On 18th February the ConsulGeneral wrote to the chief of police |