§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)asked the Secretary of State for War, whether his attention had been directed to the evidence given by the Controller and Auditor General before the Public Accounts Committee—
The War Office is very much behind the Admiralty in the Information which they give to Parliament; they publish no programme showing distinctly what they are going to do with the money that is granted to them;Whether in addition to this defect in supplying information to Parliament in connection with its own Estimates for the manufacturing departments, the War Office also withholds such information with regard to the large Ordnance Vote now taken in the Navy Estimates, and the Auditor General is in consequence unable "to tell Parliament that the large Ordnance Vote of £1,385,000 was to furnish so many guns or rifles," and that the money has been expended in so supplying them; and whether he will undertake that in future Parliament shall be able to "contrast between promise and performance in the Army Estimates," as it will be able to do in those of the Admiralty?
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. E. STANHOPE,) Lincolnshire, HorncastleIf my hon. Friend will look at the Army Estimates for the pre- 1538 sent year he will see that they now show, much more fully than ever before, the services for which the House is asked to Vote. Until we have experience of the working of the present change I am not prepared to insert further details.
§ MR. HANBURYWhat I wanted to ask was this. Just as the Admiralty tell us now what ships they are going to build, and at the end of the year give us an opportunity of knowing if the programme has been carried out, will the Secretary for War tell us what guns he is going to manufacture, and give us an opportunity of knowing at the end of the year whether the War Office programme has been carried out?
§ *MR. E. STANHOPEThe War Office does now show the details of what is ordered, and therefore the Auditor General can form an opinion as to whether we have performed our promises.