§ MR. HERBERT SAMUEL (Yorkshire, Cleveland)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state how many firms were invited by the Crown Agents to tender for the supply of each of the following articles on the latest occasion within the last three years on which an order for considerable quantities of such articles was given by the Crown Agents, namely:—railway rails, steel sleepers, steel bridges, locomotives, railway trucks, railway carriages, electric cranes, steam cranes, corrugated iron, iron pipes, cement, telegraph wire, electric cables, telegraph insulators, machinery for electric lighting, engine coal, rifles, cartridges, and harness.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) The preparation of the answer to this Question will take some time. If the hon. Member will move for the information in the form of a Return I shall be prepared to give it.