§ Sir RYLAND ADKINSasked the President. of the Board of Education whether he has received a copy of the memorandum issued by a joint committee of the County Councils Association, the Association of Municipal Corporations, and the Association of Education Committees on the subject of the training colleges provided by local education authorities; whether he admits the accuracy of the statements contained in that memorandum and, if not, to which of them he demurs; and what steps he proposes to take to relieve those authorities, pending Government action as a result. of the report. of the proposed Departmental Committee on Training Colleges, from the inequitable financial position in which they have been placed in consequence of the Board's action in differentiating between training colleges provided by local authorities and denominational training colleges by withdrawing from the former the grant of approximately 85 per cent. hitherto given to them (and on the faith of which such colleges were established and requiring them to he regarded as local institutions towards the cost of which a 50 per cent. grant only is payable?
§ Mr. E. WOODThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. and I may refer the hon. and learned Member to the reply I gave on the 22nd February last to the Noble Lord the Member for South Nottingham (Lord H. Cavendish-Bentinck). The statements in the Memorandum and the question itself include a large element. of argument and opinion with which it is scarcely possible to deal within the limits of question and answer.