Mr. MacKINNON:

He was my uncle.

Mr. MACKENZIE:

-did this about forty years ago, in the Gaelic language as used in that part of the country from which my colleague the Minister of Trade and Commerce (Mr. MacKinnon) comes. This is what it says in Genesis, chapter 27, part of verse 22:

Is e 'n guth guth Iacoib, ach is iad na lamhan lamhan Esau.

The translation, which I give to a long suffering Hansard, is:

The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

Questions

Mr. GRAYDON:

Mr. Speaker, does this mean that this house is becoming trilingual?

Mr. MACKENZIE:

It should be.

Mr. SPEAKER:

According to the rules the right hon. minister should not try to introduce a third language in the house.

Mr. GRAYDON:

Would the minister

explain the purpose of the bill?

Mr. CHEVRIER:

The object of this bill is to amend the Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Act so as to give the federal authority jurisdiction over rates of pay, hours of work and certain working conditions of the employees of the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways. As the matter now stands the provinces, under property and civil rights, have passed their own legislation, and the result is that the collective agreements which have been entered into between the railways and their employees have not uniform application in all parts of the country. The purpose of this legislation is to occupy the field in so far as labour relations of railway workers are concerned.

Mr. GRAA DON:

With the consent of the provinces?

Mr. CHEVRIER:

It is not necessary.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

1. How many people were employed at Debert depot by war assets corporation for each of the twelve months prior to May I, 1947?

2. What was the total (a) salaries and wages; (lb) travelling and living expenses, paid to all employees at said Debert depot in each of the twelve months prior to May 1, 1947 ?

3. \\ hat was the total value of material sold in each of the twelve months prior to May 1, 1947 by war assets corporation from their Debert depot?

Mr. McILRAITH:

1 and 2. At War Assets Corporation's warehouse No. 41, Debert, Nova Scotia:

Number Salaries and

Month employed wages Expenses

1946

Mav . SI 8 10,064 95 June . 87 10,823 11 July . 89 12,141 24 August ... . 96 11,477 38 September . 100 11,254 75 October .. . 126 15.100 05 S 335 25November. . 129 14,787 34 424 75December. . 130 19,533 60 608 251947 January .. . 149 15,470 27 417 00February . . 144 18,806 97 348 50March ... . 126 19,913 07 440 25April .... . 113 12,616 73 345 00Note.-No living $171,989 46 expenses are 82,919 00 incurred by

the corporation in connection with the operation of this warehouse. Expenses shown above consist of general operating and local transportation disbursements.

3. Material is moved out of a War Assets Corporation warehouse for delivery or release to the purchaser, on receipt of the release copy of a sales order from the branch office of the corporation which made the sale. This copy of the sales order does not indicate the sale price. In order therefore to answer this part of the question, it would be necessary to have every branch across Canada report on the sales made from the Debert warehouse during the last 12 months. In view of the large volume of work involved, no answer to this part of the question has been prepared.