§ 55. Mr. ALDENasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amount of Income Tax charged to the Railway Clearing System Superannuation Fund for each of the financial years 1913–14, 1914–15, 1915–16, 1916–17, and 1917–18, and also the amount of any refund made in each of those years?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe Commissioners of Inland Revenue are precluded from giving information of the kind asked for in the question in regard to particular taxpayers.
§ 56. Mr. ALDENasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware of the hardships suffered by the superannuated members of the various railway superannuation funds, a large proportion of whom are in receipt of very small annuities, owing to the diminution of the purchasing value of money; and if, seeing that new and important points have arisen in connection with these funds from the economic and financial changes of the time and the special relations now subsisting 1606 between the Government and the railways, he will sympathetically consider a reasoned statement of the whole case which those intimately interested are desirous of submitting to him?
Sir A. STANLEYMy right hon. Friend has asked me to answer this question. The present Government control of the railways does not involve financial or administrative connection between the Government and railway superannuation funds, and I fear I am not in a position to intervene.