§ MR. LEVY (Leicestershire, Loughborough)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of the contract for locomotives recently given by Canada to a Glasgow firm, he will inquire from the Canadian Government and inform the House the difference in price between the accepted tender and the lowest tender of a foreign firm, and state the percentage of preference given by the tariff to the Glasgow firm as against the lowest tender from a foreign nation.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain.) The locomotives were bought by the Canadian Pacific Railway, not by the Canadian Government, and it would be unusual to ask them to disclose either the amount of the successful tender or that of the lowest foreign tender. I am 572 informed that the preference given to the British firm amounts in the case of each locomotive to fully £500.