§ MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he can state the amount paid to contractors for native meat and home grown produce supplied to the troops and horses stationed in Ireland, and whether he can give the amount paid to contractors for foreign meat and imported forage supplies; and whether he can state the amount paid for fittings for men and horses of goods manufactured in Ireland, and, approximately, the total amount so 1333 claimed as a set-off to the over-taxation of Ireland.
LORD STANLEYAs I have previously explained to the House, it is not possible to obtain figures of the kind referred to without great difficulty, and I am not at present prepared to inflict the labour entailed upon the officers concerned, who are already overworked.
§ Captain DONELAN (Cork, E.)Can the noble Lord give us the proportion of foreign to home grown meat at present supplied to the troops in Ireland?
§ [No answer was returned.]
§ MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether prime oxen were purchased in Dublin market for the use of Boer prisoners at St. Helena, while at the same time the troops stationed in Ireland were mainly fed on imported foreign meat; and whether, seeing that native meat could have been purchased from contractors at the fractional difference of a few pence in each hundred pounds weight, and that the tendered price for the supply of native Irish meat was about half the price paid for frozen meat in South Africa, he can explain why native meat was not purchased for the troops in Ireland.
LORD STANLEYCattle were purchased in Dublin for the troops and also for the Boer prisoners at St. Helena. In reply to the second paragraph, I can only say that native meat is largely purchased for the troops in Ireland.