§ MR. MAURICE HEALYI beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will state the total quantity of Army shirts tendered for and supplied respectively by shirt manufacturers in the United Kingdom for the troops in South Africa during the past twelve months; what proportion was tendered for by manufacturers in the south of Ireland, and were their tenders accepted; what were the conditions of specification as to quality stipulated for by the Government, and were those conditions complied with by south of Ireland manufacturers; and, seeing that the identical quality of shirting previously accepted by the Government was offered at a lower price by one of the largest manufacturers of those goods in the south of Ireland, and that the tender was declined, can he explain why Irish manufacturers have received none of the Government contracts for Army shirts.
* MR. J. POWELL-WILLIAMSThe total quantity being supplied is about 700,000; 31,000 were offered by south of Ireland firms and were not accepted. The material was to be flannel or union mixture containing not less than 50 per cent. of wool. In some cases the supply was to be to War Office pattern; in others the contractors were allowed to submit their own patterns. If there had been great emergency at the time the orders referred to were placed, some samples submitted by south of Ireland firms might have been accepted, but there was then no difficulty in meeting the requirements from the more suitable samples submitted by other firms. Nothing is known as to the particular case referred to in the second paragraph, but nine 862 Irish manufacturers received orders, and a considerable number of other shirts were manufactured in Ireland by firms whose head offices are in Great Britain.
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)Out of the many millions spent on these matters, has threepence gone to Ireland?