§ MR. ERNEST GRAY (West Ham, N.)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether, after a scheme for the allocation of the aid grant had been submitted to the Education Department by the governing body of the Voluntary Schools Association for the Diocese of London, the financial secretary of the London Diocesan Board of Education applied to the Department for permission to amend the terms of allocation to certain schools in financial arrangement with the Board, so as to provide for the payment of debts incurred in anticipation of the aid grant; whether the question of using the aid grant for the liquidation of debts contracted before the passing of the Voluntary Schools Act was referred to the Law Officers of the Crown, who decided that such payments would be illegal; and whether the practice of the Education Department has not always been consistent with such decision?
§ SIR J. GORSTThe answers to all three of my honourable Friend's Questions are in the affirmative.