§ MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)asked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, If his attention has been called to the statistics and particulars obtained by the London Chamber of Commerce as to the employment of foreigners in London, summarized in The Times of the 13th instant; if he can, by Circular Letter or otherwise, endeavour to arouse the attention of all persons concerned in education, and, in particular, the Governing Bodies and Head Masters of Public, Grammar, and High Schools, although not under the authority of the Education Department, to the woeful state of affairs thereby proved to be now existing in the City of London—namely, the employment of foreign clerks by 35 per cent of mercantile houses—
Because Englishmen have no proper commercial education.and because—99 Englishmen out of 100 are acquainted with no language but their own.and, if he can state when the Government Technical and Commercial Education Bill will be in the hands of Members?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT (Sir WILLIAM HART DYKE) (Kent, Dartford), in reply, said, he hoped that the Bill referred to would be printed and in the hands of Members in the course of a few days. He trusted that some of the provisions of the Bill would, at all events, go far to remedy the state of affairs mentioned in the hon. Member's Question. The hon. Member did not seem to be aware that the Charity Commissioners in no less than 333 schemes out of a total of 412, had kept the requirements of commercial education strictly in view, and had in all these cases made provision for the teaching of one, if not two foreign 1343 languages. Other commercial subjects are frequently included, and new schemes on the same lines are constantly coming into operation.