MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty is it the practice of the Admiralty, when they have made contracts based on the acceptance of one of several competitive tenders, not to publish the amounts of the tenders received with the names of those who have made them; and, if so, will the Admiralty consider the desira- 88 bility of publishing these particulars, as is done by local authorities in similar cases.
§ MR. PRETYMANThis question was fully inquired into in 1888 by the Directors of Army and Navy Contracts, and the conclusion arrived at, as the result of experience and after obtaining the opinions of manufacturers, was that it was to the interest of the country that the practice of treating tenders as strictly confidential should be continued. The Report of the Directors of Army and Navy Contracts upon the subject was presented to Parliament in March, 1888.