§ MR. MELLOR (Yorkshire, W.R., Sowerby)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the Public Works Loan Commissioners decline to give any particulars of the fees charged by them to Volunteer Corps in respect of loans for the purpose of acquiring drill halls or other premises for the use of the corps, and that in a recent case of the headquarters at Reading of the 1st Volunteer Battalion Berkshire Regiment, their fees amounted to £14 3s. 6d. on a loan of £2,0l7; and, if so, will he say whether he has sanctioned the action of the Commissioners, and in particular of any profit costs being included in the fees charged to His Majesty's Forces by a Public Department in excess of the actual expense of the work done and the stamp; and, if not, whether he will make representations to the Commissioners in the interest of the Volunteer Forces.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) The Public Works Loan Commissioners are not amenable to the War Office, but to the Treasury, to whom I would ask that the Question should be addressed.