SIR JOHN HAYsaid, he would beg-to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the Mr. Austin whom he has stated to have purchased a portion of Deptford Dockyard for £71,500, is the same Mr. Austin whose name appears as security for the contractor for the extension works at Chatham Dockyard; and, whether the purchase money has been paid, and if he can state to what industrial purpose Deptford Yard has been applied by Mr. Austin to afford employment at Deptford?
§ MR. CHILDERSSir, my hon. and gallant Friend will excuse me for saying that I am very much puzzled to know what the object of his first Question can be. I cannot conceive what objection there can be to a gentleman accepted by my hon. and gallant Friend and his Colleagues a few years ago as surety to a particular contract, purchasing, under very different circumstances, the property in Deptford Dockyard. However, as my hon. and gallant Friend has thought fit to ask the Question, I have made inquiry of the persons who are most likely to know; and I find—though, perhaps, it is an impertinent question—that the gentleman who is the purchaser of the property is the same gentleman who was accepted, four years ago, as surety to a certain contract. At the same time, I think my hon. and gallant Friend is in error as to the frame of his Question. I have referred to the usual places where Answers are reported, and I cannot find that I ever stated that this gentleman had become the purchaser, or that I named the sum which the hon. and gallant Member has quoted. With reference to the second Question, I have to state that the money has not been paid up to the present day, but the agreement has been signed. I have not thought that I should be justified in asking the gentleman in question to what particular purpose he proposed to apply the property which he had purchased.