§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the Report of Mr. Burnett, the Labour Correspondent of the Board of Trade, on the sweating system at the East End of London, and also to the evidences as to certain Government contracts with sweaters, given before the Judge Advocate General while inquiring into the supply of defective stores at Woolwich; and, whether the Government intends to adopt in all Departments one of the remedies mentioned in Mr. Burnett's Report—namely,
Making it a condition of all Government clothing contracts that they must not be worked out under, the sweating or sub-contract system?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)The attention of the Government has been given to the Report of Mr. Burnett, and they have agreed to a Committee of the House of Lords, which was nominated on the 9th of March, to inquire into the 1638 sweating system. Until that Committee has reported, it would be premature to lay down any general Rules applying to contractors which it might be impossible to enforce; but all the influence of the Government will be exercised in discouragement of the system.