§ SIR A. HICKMAN (Wolverhampton, W.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the Secretary of State for India has lately given instructions for a large order for steel railway tyres which were required for an Indian railway to be sent to Belgium, because the price quoted by the Belgian maker was lower than had been quoted by the best English firms, and whether he has also given instructions for an order for 9,000 tons of steel sleepers to be sent to Belgium, though the difference in price in the latter case was only 10s. per ton; whether any stipulations as regards rate of wages or sweating are imposed upon foreign contractors by the English Government; whether lie is aware that the President of the Local Government Board has lately, by Circular, called the attention of the Local Authorities to the scarcity of employment which now exists in many parts of 1325 the country, and to the great probability of its becoming more general and being intensified during the winter months; and whether he will endeavour to induce his Department to give employment to British workmen as much as possible by giving their orders at Home even if the cost is a little greater?
* MR. GEORGE RUSSELLThe hon. Member's question presumably refers to the Guaranteed Railway Companies, and not to the State Railways, which are under the direct control of the Secretary of State in Council. As regards the State Railways, no such orders as those referred to by the hon. Member have been placed. One of the Guaranteed Companies has recently given an order for 9,000 tons of steel sleepers, but to an English, not a foreign, firm. The same Company is at present engaged in purchasing steel tyres.