§ MR. COCHRANE (Ayrshire, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the only factory of nitro-glycerine in Scotland (the chief ingredient in cordite gunpowder) is 1706 located at Ardeer in Ayrshire, and is conducted by the Nobels Explosives Company, Limited; that General Noble, the late Superintendent of the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey, by local advertisement and personal interview, induced some of the most experienced workmen employed in Nobels factory, and who were acquainted with the secret processes connected with the manufacture of nitro-glycerine, to leave their employment and take service in the Government factory; and whether this method of obtaining skilled workmen and information to enable the War Office to compete with private traders is in accordance with the Rules and usual practice of the War Department?
§ MR.CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI must ask the hon. Member to postpone this question. I have to remind him that litigation is pending between the War Department and this Company, and while that is going on it is undesirable that any question as to it should be put or answered in this House.
§ MR. COCHRANEWill the right hon. Gentleman get the litigation pushed forward as rapidly as possible?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANWe are doing so as much as we can.