MR. WALKERI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies with reference to the recent statement of Sir Augustus Hemming that, when he was Governor of Jamaica, the evidence of neglect and error in the case of a transaction carried out by the Crown Agents was so strong that they were ordered to repay to the Colony between four and five hundred pounds; what was the nature of the transaction; in what did the neglect and error consist; and from what fund was the repayment made.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe neglect of which the Colonial Government complained in connection with this transaction was that the Crown Agents had failed to call their attention to the fact that the accepted tender for certain rolling stock exceeded an estimate of the consulting engineers which they thought applied to this stock. The right hon. Member for West Birmingham, at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies, while not acquitting the Colonial Government of blame in the matter, considered that the Crown Agents might properly be required to pay the excess from their office funds.