§ MR. GOULDING (Wiltshire, Devizes)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will give the highest and lowest prices paid to contractors for making Royal Artillery tunics since 31st December, 1901; whether his Department has any knowledge of the wages paid by the contractors to their workpeople; whether he is aware that a firm of Government contractors recently offered their hands 2s. 4d. for making overcoats; and whether, seeing that this is below the Pimlico standard of wages, he proposes to take any steps in the matter.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) In reply to the first part of the Question, all contract prices are strictly confidential. 169 As regards the second part, any case, where the War Department has reason to believe that the contract conditions as to payment of current wages are being broken, is fully investigated. As regards the third part of the Question, the reply is in the negative. As regards the last part of the Question, prices are not ruled by the wages paid at Pimlico, but by the House of Commons Resolution of 1891.