§ DR. MACNAMARA (Camberwell, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will state the names of the firms supplying the 1,034,532 emergency 188 rations and the 4,537,090 meat and vegetable rations, stated at page 257 of the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General as having been destroyed in South Africa; whether his attention has been called to the statement in the Report in question that of the 1,034,532 condemned emergency rations 955,727 were supplied by Messrs. Maconochie, and to the statement that this firm substituted 365,600 rations on account of condemned supplies, many of these substituted rations being also subsequently found to be unsound; and whether he will state the nature of the final claim against this contractor recently submitted to the Treasury, as described on page 258 of the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster.) As regards the first part of the Question, the names of the firms, so far as they can be traced, are as follows:—Maconochie Brothers; Poulton and Noel; London Canning Company; Moir and Wilson; Moir and Sons; Davidson, R. and W.; Sturton Brothers; Bruce, W.; Aberdeen Preserving Company; Duhamel and Company; Milne and Son; Morton, E. and C.; Bovril, Limited; Chamberlain, H. R.; Woolwich. The reply to the second part of the Question is in the affirmative. The final claim on Messrs. Maconochie is for £2,500.