HC Deb 20 November 1906 vol 165 cc604-5
MR. CHIOZZA MONEY (Paddington, N.)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether any, and, if any, precisely what guarantees of secrecy are exacted from private contractors who are permitted to visit Woolwich Arsenal to copy designs for new torpedoes; and whether, in the interests of national defence, he will confine the manufacture of such newly designed torpedoes to Government workshops.

MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON

Private contractors, equally with Government officials, are bound to observe secrecy under the Official Secrets Acts. It has been considered to be in the interests of national defence to have an alternative source of supply in the case of torpedoes as well as of guns, ships and other warlike implements.