§ Sir W. DICKINSONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the address and description of naval and military electors on the absent voters' lists are those that were ascertained in June, and are such that without further information supplied by the War Office as to the whereabouts of these electors communications addressed by using these lists will have little or no chance of reaching them; whether a corrected list of addresses will be provided to the returning officer for the purpose of 332W sending out the ballot papers; how long before the polling day will the corrected lists be in the hands of the returning officers; and whether the Government will give instructions that such corrected lists shall be available for candidates in such time and manner as will render it possible for their election addresses to be in the hands of sailors and soldiers before the ballot papers are sent out?
Mr. FISHERArrangements have been made, in co-operation with the Admiralty, the War Office and the Air Ministry, to provide for information being supplied to the returning officers when an election is imminent of changes of posting and address. The record offices of the Army and Air Force, which cover the great majority of naval and military voters, are engaged in preparing from the information supplied to them by the registration officers card indexes of all the registered electors on their records, arranged under the constituencies in which they are registered. From these indexes, when completed, the information as to address will be supplied as rapidly as possible, and as at present arranged the information will be posted to the acting returning officers by officers in charge of records within seventy-two hours of instructions being received. I propose to request returning officers to do what they can to make the information available for the agents of candidates.
§ Sir W. DICKINSONasked the Secretary to the Local Government Board whether he is aware that copies of the absent voters' list had not up to Saturday last been ready for delivery in a number of registration areas in London; and whether he will inquire as to the cause of the delay in publication?
Mr. FISHERIn several cases there has been delay in publishing the absent voters' lists in London constituencies, but I find that at the present time there are only three Parliamentary boroughs for which the lists have not been printed off for supply. I understand that in one case some delay has occurred on account of alterations in polling districts, necessitating corresponding alterations in the lists, and that generally there has been difficulty in immediate publication on account of the necesity of carefully checking the lists with the registers. I am assured that the lists will be ready by the end of the present week.