§ CAPTAIN NORTON (West Newington)I beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he can explain why workmen are now being discharged from the Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, in spite of the fact that they willingly consented to a system of booking short money, varying from 5s. to 2s. per week, in order to avoid discharge; whether work in the Royal Gun 149 Factory on the 6-inch gun has been stopped, while contractors are delivering the new 6-inch gun completed for the Inspection Branch; and whether he will consider the advisability, instead of discharging more men, of transferring them to the Royal Carriage Department, where overtime is now being worked?
MR. POWELL WILLIAMSNothing is known in regard to the statement as to short booking in the first paragraph of the Question. The work on the 6-inch gun has not been stopped. In regard to the third paragraph, I must refer the honourable Member to my reply to a Question put by the honourable Member for Battersea on the 20th instant.
§ SIR C. DILKEOn behalf of the honourable Member for Battersea, I beg to ask at the Financial Secretary to the War Once whether orders for guns, after being given to the Royal Gun Factory, have been cancelled and placed in contractor's hands; and, if so, will he explain on what grounds; and what is the relative value of gun orders given to the Royal Gun Factory and to private contractors during the past two years?
MR. POWELL WILLIAMSNo order given to the Royal Gun Factory for guns has been cancelled and placed in contractor's hands. The estimated value of orders for guns allotted to the Ordnance Factories in the two years 1897–1899 is £876,370. The value of orders given to the trade is £1,109,940.