MR. NEWDIGATE (Warwickshire, Nuneaton)To ask the First Commissioner of Works whether he will state who is responsible for the arranging 917 and general supervision of the pictures in Hampton Court Palace. And whether the Government will give sufficient pecuniary assistance as will enable those responsible for the pictures in question to place them in the same state of preservation as the pictures in the National and other Galleries and Royal Palaces.
(Answer.) The King's Surveyor of pictures is primarily responsible for the arranging and general supervision of the pictures. Such sums as he has asked for have been inserted in the annual Estimates of my Department. The restoration of these pictures can only be carried out gradually, as the work is one for experts, whose hands are full, and it could avail nothing to call upon Parliament to Vote annually larger amounts than those now provided—(Office of Works.)