§ MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War has his attention been called to the accident on the Northern Counties Railway to a train containing a detachment of the 17th Lancers, and to the fact that the squadron left Ballincollig, county Cork, the previous day for Edinburgh, and had travelled to Dublin, and thence via Dundalk, Lisburn, and Antrim, by the Great Northern Railway, where they joined the Northern Counties line to go on to Larne; will he say who is responsible for the selection of such a route; will he ascertain how travellers not in His Majesty's service usually proceed from Cork to Edinburgh; and will he state the cost of the transport in question, and the amount of damage caused by the accident, and say whether any efforts are made beforehand to ascertain the comparative costs of transport by alternative routes in such cases.
§ MR. BRODRICKMy attention has been drawn to this accident. The route described is correct, and the Quartermaster General is responsible for its selection. The comparative cost of transport is considered before routes are made, and such routes necessarily largely depend on the arrangements for reduced rates made with the railway companies. In this case the cost of the transport was about £710, and the cost of transport by the only alternative route would have been over £100 more. The question of the route usually selected by travellers has, therefore, nothing to do with the case. The amount of the damage caused by the railway accident was about £250.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYThe point has been cut out of my Question. I do not think it out of order to ask why the southern railroads are boycotted and round-about routes on the northern lines selected. Were tenders obtained beforehand?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe arrangements were made long beforehand, and the whole matter was carefully gone into.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYI say it was all guess work.