§ Major GASTRELLasked the President of the Board of Trade on what date, and by what Department or officer, the nominations of Mr. James Wood and Mr. George Morris, by members of the Lambeth branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, to serve on panels of referees re unemployed insurance were declared invalid; whether any other nomination was made by nominators whose names were written and not individually signed; and whether any attempt was made to ascertain if these men were duly nominated by the branch of the Carpenters and Joiners Amalgamated Society above referred to?
Mr. ROBERTSONThe nomination papers of candidates for election as workmen's representatives were scrutinised immediately after receipt at the Board of Trade offices in London. On all the nomination papers received for the ward in question, other than that in respect of Mr. Wood and Mr. Morris, the names of the nominators appeared to have been individually signed, and in the United Kingdom as a whole this was the case with all except eighty-seven papers out of a total of about 3,000 received. I regret that it was not practicable to arrange for the rectification of invalid nomination papers.