§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, (1) why the contracts made by the War Office for the supply of foreign meat and foreign forage, and by the Stationery Office for the supply of foreign pencils to the Houses of Parliament and the Civil Service, are not included in the Return presented on 6th May—Contracts with Foreigners; and (2) if he will cause it to be amended by the inclusion, not only of contracts directly made with contractors outside the United Kingdom, but also the orders placed on account of the public with the agents of foreigners, without regard to the Fair Contracts Resolution of 1891.
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Sir JOHN HIBBERT, Oldham)The Return is for all contracts made in the United Kingdom by Government departments in the year 1894–95 with contractors outside the United Kingdom for articles of home manufacture. The articles mentioned in the first paragraph of the question were not so contracted for. It is impossible to ascertain where all the articles supplied by contractors inside the United Kingdom are manufactured.