§ MR. LEA (St. Pancras, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether, in view of the refusal of the Committee of the House of Representatives on Agriculture, on the 13th instant, at Washington, to order the meat packers in the United States to label or stamp the date of manufacture on each article of food product sold by the packers, he will issue an Army order that in future every can of preserved meat supplied to the Army shall be plainly stamped with the date of its manufacture; and that in future all bottles, tins, or cases of preserved food bought by the military authorities, whether for issue to our soldiers at Home, in India, or in the Colonies, shall be indelibly stamped, labelled, or marked in a similar manner.
§ *MR. HALDANEMy hon. friend is evidently unaware that it has long been a condition of the ordinary War Office contracts that tins of preserved food must have the date of canning visibly stamped on the inside.