§ SIR ROBERT PEEL, who had the following Question on the Paper:—To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, with reference to a statement made by the Member for Cardiff, in a speech at Portsmouth on the 18th March, to the effect that much of the money voted for shipbuilding purposes had been used to meet expenditure in other Departments, whether such a misapplication of the funds voted by Parliament would not constitute a flagrant violation of the pledges given to Parliament in voting Estimates for a specific purpose; and, whether, if such alleged diversion has taken place, he can inform the House how much of the money voted for shipbuilding purposes, during the past four years, has been thus diverted from its legitimate channel to meet expenditure in other Departments? said: Since putting this Question on the Paper, I have received a letter from the hon. Member for Cardiff (Sir Edward Reed), in which he informs me that the re- 27 porter failed to catch the sense of his remarks. The speech of the hon. Member appeared in all the Liberal newspapers of the day, and therefore I copied the statement from that source.
I did not intend to imply," the hon. Member says, that the funds voted by Parliament were differently applied, although that was sometimes the case.I shall, therefore, leave out the reference to the hon. Member, and ask the second part of the Question only.
§ SIR THOMAS BRASSEYI can only say that, within the period for which the present Board of Admiralty is responsible, money voted for shipbuilding purposes has not been vised to meet expenditure in other Departments.