§ 42. Mr. GILBERTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether a certain educational paper containing a great deal of special matter concerning the Ministry of Food has been circulated to every school in the country with the consent, or by the orders, of his Department; whether any subsidy or payment was made to the paper for this special number of forty-eight pages, and, if so, how much; whether any quantity of paper was released to this paper for this extra-sized number, and, if so, can he state the quantity; and whether, as there are other educational papers of a like character that compete with this one, he will explain why this particular paper was chosen, and if the offer of the special matter and any payments were offered to all the similar educational journals published?
§ Mr. PARKERThe editor of the "Teacher's World" submitted to my 1045 Department proposals for a special number of his journal, dealing with food questions. No subsidy or payment was made. Owing to the educational value from the point of view of food production and conservation which this issue was thought to involve, it was arranged to send copies to the head teachers of primary schools, and a sufficient quantity of paper was provided to enable this distribution to be made.
§ Mr. LEIF JONESAre we to understand that no expenditure was incurred by the Ministry of Food in connection with this publication?
§ Mr. PARKERThe answer practically states that fact.
§ Mr. GILBERTCan the hon. Gentleman state, if copies were sent to head teachers of every school in the country, whether the cost of the journal and the postage was paid by the Food Department?
§ Mr. PARKERI gather from the answer which I have read that the cost of the journal was not, but as to the postage, I will make inquiries. I cannot speak with knowledge myself.