§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE Wiltshire, Cricklade)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if his attention has been called to a statement made by the district surveyor of the Pewsey (Wiltshire) District Council on the 24th of March at a meeting of that council, viz., that it cost£3,152 in the district to repair the damage done by the contractors to the War Office to the roads of the district; that this expense could have been almost entirely saved had the War Office specified that all material should be conveyed to the nearest railway station to Bulford Camp, viz., Porton or Grately, instead of to Ludgershall, which was several mile" from the camp, and that had this been 137 done £500 would have covered the damage; and will he explain why the arrangement was made to deliver the materials at Ludgershall instead of at the nearest station, and if the War Office has accepted liability for the above sum of £3,152 or part of it, as damages for extraordinary traffic.
LORD STANLEYThe sum of £2,042 has been paid to the Pewsey District Council in respect of damage to roads of the district alleged to have been caused by extraordinary military traffic, and a further claim is at present under consideration. It is not usual to specify a particular route by which a contractor shall bring his goods to the site of a proposed work, and no particular route was specified in this case. The contractor was subject to heavy time penalties, and doubtless chose the route most convenient and most expeditious under the circumstances.