§ Mr. GOULDINGasked the Secretary to the Treasury on what principle the various Insurance Commissioners selected the methods for the election of the representatives of insured persons on insurance committees; what the probable cost to the taxpayer of such elections will be; whether he is aware that votes totalling in the aggregate many millions were cast nominally on behalf of approved societies by individual officials; and whether he will explain how such a method will result in an accurate expression of the opinion of the insured persons?
§ Mr. MASTERMANI will send the hon. Member copies of the memoranda issued, from which he will see that all the Commissioners have adopted the same general principles for securing the equitable representation of approved societies on the insurance committees. The detailed differences in the method of conducting the election by societies whose membership in any particular area was not sufficient to entitle them to a direct appointment were due to the different conditions obtaining in each country. Owing to the method of election adopted by the Commissioners the cost to the taxpayer, being merely the cost of printing the necessary documents, was inappreciable. The Act confers the power of appointing members not on the individual members of a society but on the society as a whole.