§ VISCOUNT FOLKESTONE (Middlesex, Enfield)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether it is true, as stated in a telegram exhibited in this House yesterday, that—
Notwithstanding recent telegrams from War Office, sixty viewers and ninety workmen were discharged from the barrel department of the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield today;and, whether there is any foundation for the rumour, which the same telegram says is prevalent there, that one 476 thousand hands in similar small batches will shortly be discharged?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CAMPBELL-BANERMAN) (Stirling, &c.)In answer to my noble Friend, I am unaware of the existence of the telegram referred to, and I do not know how such a telegram came to be exhibited in the House. No discharges have taken place at Enfield, and none are at present contemplated. On inquiry, I find that a few men have been temporarily put out of work in consequence of the part of the manufacturing process in which they were engaged being for the moment too far in advance of the rest. This may be the origin of the report.