Committee. The latest average of the prices credited to Germany for Reparation Dyes is slightly under 2s. a pound.

7. Mercantile Marine Services.-For the Mercantile Marine Services the net total vote is £436,621 as compared with £124,424 for the year 1913-14. Since that date, however, the functions of the Department have been increased by the taking over of the Coast Guard Services which largely account for the increase of staff from 942 in August, 1914, to something over 2,000 at the present time. The cost of the Survey Staff has increased from £79,000 in 1913-14 to £186,000 for the current year.

Shipping Liquidation Department.

8. By far the most important addition to the work of the Board of Trade since the War is that of Shipping Liquidation. Your Committee have inquired into the present position of this service. The progress made in liquidation is, in their opinion, decidedly disappointing. They are of opinion that the smaller disputed accounts, mostly voyage accounts, ought to have been cleared up with greater celerity. A year ago the number of live cases amounted to about 8,000, and in addition to that there were some 3,000 to 4,000 accounts of various descriptions, mainly voyage accounts. The corresponding figures to-day are 6,700 and 1,561. Notwithstanding this reduction, the net amount of money still to be collected is £9,000,000 and £3,000,000 to be paid, as against £14,000,000 collected and £8,000,000 to be paid last year.

9. Your Committee particularly desire to call the attention of the House of Commons to the fact that some doubt exists as to the precise scope of the Indemnity Act which has led in certain cases to litigation, and to the importance of resolving these doubts. Your Committee recommend that an amendment to effect this purpose should be introduced at an early date.

10. They further recommend that in order to accelerate the settlement of claims and counter-claims, the method adopted in the case of the Ministry of Munitions should be applied to the Shipping Liquidation Commission and that a small committee of Treasury officials should for this purpose be appointed.

11. Your Committee report with satisfaction that out of a total turnover (Q.77) of £1,500,000,000, of which the debts of the Russian Government represent £5,000,000, the bad debts, excluding those due from Russia, amount only to about £40,000, or much less than 1 per cent.

12. The Shipping Liquidation Commission has now virtually ceased to operate vessels, and your Committee have reason to hope that the present estimate is the last estimate of any considerable amount which will be presented to Parliament, and that within two years at the outside the Shipping Liquidation Department will have ceased to exist.

Department of Overseas Trade.

13. Evidence was taken from Sir William Clark, K.C.S.I., C.M.G., the Comptroller-General of the Department of Overseas Trade. This Department now combines the Commercial Intelligence Department of the Board of Trade and the Commercial Department of the Foreign Office. Previous to the War these departments were on a very small scale, and their expenditure was estimated by the Geddes Committee at a total of £34,000 a year. The estimate of the Department of Overseas Trade for the current year is £300,282, with a Headquarters Staff of 377. The Geddes Committee reported that such a staff appeared to them to be unjustified, and recommended a large reduction in the Headquarters Staff. The actual reduction has only been eight. The Petroleum Department has been wound up and is now reabsorbed into the Board of Trade. On the other hand, the expenses of the staff attached to the Commercial Counsellor for Russia

have been transferred from the Foreign Office to the Department of Overseas Trade.

15. The Department has now decided, on the score of economy, to discontinue participation in various agricultural exhibitions in Canada, but has decided to spend a considerable sum on the International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Art at Paris.

16. Your Committee report with satisfaction that the Export Credits Scheme is self-supporting on the administrative side (Q. 1218), and they are satisfied that without material cost to the Treasury it has been of considerable assistance to British export trade. The total sums required for the current year from Parliament is £200,000, this being represented by guarantees in respect of Exports of Goods, £300,000, and Appropriations in Aid, £100,000. This shows a decrease of £50,000 as compared with last year. The Reserve Fund now amounts to about £150,000 (Q. 1335) The amount now outstanding of Government credit is £7,000,000 to £8,000,000.

17. Your Committee consider that the form in which the estimate is presented is not appropriate to the purpose for which it is intended, though it conforms to the usual practice of the Treasury. Your Committee found that it failed to disclose information in a form intelligible to the Committee or presumably to the House of Commons, and they recommend that there should be attached to the existing estimate a Trading Account to indicate unclosed risks, and further that the Accounts should be discriminated in such a manner as to show loss or gain on advances apart from loss or gain in suspense for the whole period since the guarantee policy was inaugurated.

Enemy Debts Department.

18. Your Committee have given prolonged consideration to the position of the Clearing Office Enemy Debts Department and to the working of the Mixed Arbitral Tribunals, and in this connection have taken evidence from Mr. E. S. Gray, c.B., C.B.E., Controller of the Department, Sir Cecil Hurst, K.C.B., K.C., Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office, Mr. H. W. Malkim, c.B., C.M.G., Assistant to the Legal Adviser, and Mr. W. H. Robinson, C.B.E., Assistant to the Chief Clerk of the Foreign Office.

19. The position is complicated by the fact that while the Clearing Office is under the Board of Trade and is maintained by fees collected from British Claimants, the Mixed Arbitral Tribunals are independent International bodies maintained partly by the British Taxpayer but partly by other countries. The total estimate for the current year is £639,300, made up as follows: Salaries, £239,300, and a sum of £400,000 (comparing with £1,000 last year) to cover British Debts which must under guarantees be credited to the German Government even though they cannot be collected from the British debtors. Against this the Clearing House have in hand or in sight sums derived or derivable from fees, &c., estimated at about £1,000,000.

20. The net cost of the Department up to 21st March, 1924, amounted to £942,000; the total number of the claims lodged amounted to 417,944, involving a sum of approximately £233,000,000. One-third of the claims in money still remain to be disposed of, but the rate of progress is dependent on the procedure of the Mixed Arbitral Tribunals-a matter to which further reference will be made. The Revenue of the Clearing Office is derived in the main from Commissions charged on British claims. The total sum paid to British nationals by ex-enemy powers up to date is approximately £70,000,000, of which £24,000,000 have been paid in cash by Germany. (Q. 418.) The greater part of the balance, £46,000,000, has been paid out of the proceeds of the liquidation of German property in this country. The total cost of the Department represents 1 per cent. of the amount distributed, and the total outstanding claims both ways in all categories and countries amount to £70,000,000.

21. Your Committee have learnt that a sum of more than £19,000,000 is now in the hands of the Clearing Office awaiting distribution, and that such a sum is capable of discharging, in addition to the 7s. 6d. in the pound already paid on established claims, a further sum of 7s. 6d. in the pound on all claims lodged. No further claims can now be lodged, and the Clearing House is therefore aware of the full limit of possible disbursement. Your Committee therefore recommend that in order to save expenditure an immediate distribution of a further 2s. 6d. in the pound should be made, and that in addition an offer should be made to pay forthwith the unpaid balance (10s.) on all outstanding awards for compensation claims upon which the unpaid balance does not amount to more than £500, subject to the acceptance of a reduction of 10 per cent. on that balance. Such a course would, in the opinion of your Committee, result in considerable saving in staff and administration expenses by disposing of numerous petty accounts which would then become a source of tax yielding income, to the advantage alike of the national revenue and the private citizen. The 10 per cent. surrendered would be credited to the claims of which the outstanding unpaid balances were more than £500.

Mixed Arbitral Tribunals.

22. Your Committee have given close attention to the working of the Mixed Arbitral Tribunals. In view of the serious delays involving great inconvenience to claimants and considerable expense to the Exchequer, an additional Second Division Mixed Arbitral Tribunal was set up in November, 1923. Nevertheless, the numbers of outstanding Anglo-German cases, which in October, 1923, amounted to 1,580, had been only reduced to 1,467 on 15th March, 1924. It appears, therefore, to your Committee to be a matter for serious consideration whether, in order to expedite proceedings, a third Tribunal or Division should be set up. The existing Tribunals are, of course, International bodies, over which the British Government has no control, and the setting up of a Third Division would obviously involve International agreement. Alike in the direct interests of the Taxpayer and the much larger financial interests involved to the citizens of this country, your Committee cannot refrain from drawing the attention of the House of Commons to the existing position.

Question, That the Draft Report, proposed by the CHAIRMAN, be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph, put and agreed to.

Question, That the Chairman do have power to insert exact figures for round figures throughout the Report (Sir William Mitchell-Thomson) put, and agreed to.

Paragraph (1) agreed to.

Paragraph (2). Amendment made in line 1 by inserting after the first "the" the words " gross total of the" (Colonel Penry Williams). And in line 3 by inserting after the first word "1915" the words 'the corresponding Net Estimates being £49,554 and £382,550 " (Sir William Mitchell-Thomson).

Other Amendments made.

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.
Paragraph (3).

Amendment made in line 2 by leaving out the words "amount of," and inserting the words "involve the expenditure of " (Mr. R. M. Samuel) instead thereof.

Other Amendments made.

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.

Paragraph (4).

Amendment made in paragraph 3, line 5, by leaving out the words "salary of the officer," and inserting the words "continuance of the office" (Mr. E. Harmsworth) instead thereof.

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.

Paragraph (5).

Amendments made in line 3, after the first word "is" by inserting the word "still" (Colonel Spender-Clay), and in line 4, at the end, by adding the words "until 1930 " (Sir Fredric Wise).

The Chairman's Draft First Report further considered.
Paragraph (16).

Amendments made in line 1 after the word "that" by inserting the words "the guarantee scheme of," and in line 2 by leaving out the word "scheme," and inserting the word "Department" (Mr. Samuel) instead thereof.

Other Amendments made in line 5 by leaving out the words from the word "trade" down to the word " year" in line 9 (Mr. Samuel), and in paragraph 5, line 1, by leaving out the words "now outstanding of Government Credit and inserting the words " of Government Credit now operating under the Guarantee Scheme " (Mr. Samuel) instead

thereof.

Other Amendments made.

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.
Paragraph (17).

Amendments made in line 7 by leaving out the words Trading Account" and inserting the word "statement" (the Chairman) instead thereof, and in line 10 by leaving out the words "in suspense and inserting the words "on the guarantee scheme" (Sir William MitchellThomson) instead thereof.

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.

Paragraph (18) amended and agreed to.

Paragraph (19).

Amendments made in line 8 by leaving out the words "British Debts which must under guarantees " by inserting the words "the contingent liability of His Majesty's Government in respect of debts due from its nationals which must when admitted" (Sir William Mitchell-Thomson) instead thereof, and at the end of the paragraph by adding the words "This leaves only about £361,000 available for such sources for the future expenses of the Clearing Office before it becomes a charge upon the taxpayer" (Sir John Pennefather).

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.

Paragraph (20).

Amendments made.

An Amendment made at the end by adding the words "of which about represents the aggregate of about

Pennefather).

Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.

claims" (Sir John

Paragraph (21). Consideration of paragraph postponed.

Paragraph (22) amended and agreed to.

In the absence of Sir JOHN MARRIOTT through illness, Sir FREDRIC WISE, on the motion of Mr. SAMUEL, seconded by Colonel PENRY WILLIAMS, took the Chair.

The Board of Trade Estimates were further considered, and Mr. E. S. GREY, C.B., Comptroller Enemy Debts Department, was further examined.

[Adjourned till Tuesday next, at 11.30 o'clock.