§ ADMIRAL FIELD (Sussex, Eastbourne)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether his attention has been called to the last (fourth) Report from Committee on Public Accounts, page 5, on Naval Armaments; and whether, in view of the above Report, and the recommendation of Royal Commission on Naval and Military Administration that a separate Ordnance Department should be created for the supply of all arms to Navy and Army, ho will confer with Secretary of State for War, and endeavour to find a remedy for a system which is condemned by the Public Accounts Committee?
§ MR. CAMPBELL - BANNERMAN (Stirling, &c)Is it the fact that the Royal Commission on Naval and Military Administration made any such recommendation as that which is imputed to them in the question?
§ ADMIRAL FIELDMay I supplement the question with another, whether the Commission did not comment very strongly upon these Services?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThe Commission expressed no opinion as to the expediency of providing for a new Department. In reply to the question on the Paper, I have to say that an Inter-Departmental Committee, under the presidency of the Financial Secretary of the Admiralty, and consisting of the Financial Secretary of the War Office, the Accountants' General of the Army and the Navy, Mr. Richard Mills and Mr. Edwin Waterhouse, has for some time been inquiring into the existing arrangements connected with the supply and accounting, &c, of warlike stores for the Navy. Their recommendations will, I believe, meet the objections of the Committee on Public Accounts, and give the Admiralty more responsibility and control over the provision and custody of Ordnance stores required for the Naval Service.