§ MR. COGHILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he is aware that the manufacturers of china and earthenware, at the recent arbitration at Stoke-on-Trent, incurred heavy costs in meeting the case brought against them by the Home Office; and whether, in view of the breakdown of the Home Office case, he will consider the propriety of refunding to the manufacturers, the costs to which they have been put.
§ * MR. RITCHIEThe Statute under which the arbitration took place, enacts that the costs shall be paid by the parties, or one of them, according as the award may direct. The award in this case, directs that the manufacturers shall bear their own costs, and I am bound by that. Whether it is correct to speak of "the breakdown of the Home Office case" is a matter of opinion, upon which my hon. friend and myself must, I suppose, agree to differ.