§ DR. CAMERON (Glasgow, College)asked the Surveyor General of the Ordnance, Whether any steps have yet been I taken to bring home responsibility to the contractors, brokers, or officials through whom bad hay, flour, biscuits, or other supplies were despatched to recent Egyptian or South African Expeditions; whether any case for the recovery of the price of articles not up to contract standard has been submitted to the Law Officers of the Crown; whether any opinion has been given that in any case grounds for an action existed; and, whether, in any case, any compromise has been offered; and, if so, what?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL (Mr. WOODALL) (Hanley)There is no reason to suppose that the flour shipped in 1882 was not perfectly sound and good when it left this country; and there is no imputation whatever against the brokers through whom it was purchased. The reasons for its subsequent deterioration are now tolerably well known; but they could not have been foreseen when the Expedition was despatched. The opinion of the Law Officers has been obtained with regard to the contract for the hay complained of; but in the present stage it will be inconvenient to make any statement. I am not aware that it has ever been alleged that bad supplies of any kind were sent to the later Expeditions to the Nile, to Suakin, or to Bechuanaland. On the contrary, it is admitted that they were perfect in quality, and ample in quantity. Owing to the unexampled difficulties of the Nile route, and to the fact that to meet a military necessity the whaler packages had been made exceptionally light, there was some loss of supplies; but the military opinion is that the loss was due to the rough usage the cases were necessarily subjected to, rather than to defects in the packages.