SIR JOHN HAYasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether Shipping Agents and Brokers still continue to be employed to take up freight and procure transport; whether any Report on the working of the system has been made by the Director of Transports, and what is the tenor of that Report; and, whether it is intended to continue the system which was stated by the late First Lord of the Admiralty to be an experiment for one year only, as that time has expired?
§ MR. GOSCHENsaid, in reply to the first Question, that no change had been introduced; to the second, that—as 1537 usually happened—the Report had found its way to the public press and to hon. Members before it had reached the First Lord of the Admiralty; and to the third, that he would answer the Question as soon as he had had the opportunity of studying the Report and submitting it to the criticism of his colleagues. The statements that had appeared in the newspapers were not correct, as no decision had yet been arrived at.