§ CAPTAIN CRAIG (Down, E.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that an accident occurred recently at Ballykinlar Camp, county Down, which would have resulted in serious consequences had it not been for the action of the East Downshire 1135 Steamship Company, Limited, in rendering assistance with one of their barges when a party of men with two Army Service Corps waggons were overtaken by the tide when taking a short cut across Inner Dundrum Harbour; whether he is aware that the waggons had to be anchored and abandoned for a tide and all the baggage had to be taken on board the barge; and seeing that the lives of many soldiers are imperilled at this crossing, whether he will favourably consider making a grant-in-aid, conjointly with other State Departments, towards the construction of a road bridge between Redmond's Point and Dundrum.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) Three Army Service Corps waggons stuck when crossing the Inner Dundrum Harbour on the 28th ultimo, and the officer in charge hired a barge from the East Downshire Company to remove the baggage. No lives of horses or men were, however, imperilled. As the hon. and gallant Member was informed by my right hon. friend the late Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. Bryce) on the 10th July last year, a bridge would not be of sufficient importance from a military point of view to justify the expenditure of Army funds upon it.