§ Sir G. Jonesasked the President of the Board of Education whether, with a view to helping beginners in the study of the Russian language, he will take steps to encourage the publication of elementary Russian readers with vocabulary annotations and translation and elementary Russian grammars based on modern scientific methods, so as to remedy the present lack of such readers and grammars and lessen the initial difficulties of learning this language?
§ Mr. ButlerI should be very glad to do what I can to encourage the study of Russian in appropriate circumstances. The Board do not, however, prescribe text-books nor have they any means of contributing financially towards their publication. My hon. Friend will appreciate that the teaching of this subject is still on a small scale, and I think it is reasonable to assume that, as the demand grows, publishers will be more ready to meet it. Meantime, according to my information, certain text-books suitable for use in schools exist, though there may be difficulty owing to war restrictions in obtaining them in sufficient quantities.