§ MR. BELLAIRSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that the chairman of Kynoch, Limited has threatened to close their works in Arklow, Ireland, if the Home Department refuse to yield to their demands; whether he is aware that the same chairman was shown, before the Select Committee on War Office Contracts in 1900, to have used the threat to close down the Irish works in a few days as a means of obtaining contracts for cordite; whether he is aware that Kynoch, Limited, gave up manufacturing cordite in Ireland about 1900 owing to the quantity of cordite rejected by the War Office inspectors, the chief inspector of explosives having reported that in a number of lots of cordite there was found foreign matter, such as stones and nails; and whether the Home Department have any record showing what became of this quan- 614 tity of rejected cordite, and were they notified of its existence by the War Office.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe Answers to the first and second parts of the Question are in the affirmative. The Answer to the third is that rejections by the War Office inspectors of cordite manufactured in Ireland occurred in 1899 owing to the presence of foreign matter, and in 1902 owing to low heat test, and that after the rejections in the latter year the firm gave up manufacturing cordite in Ireland. As to the fourth, the rejections which occurred in 1899 owing to the presence of foreign matter were not notified to the Home Office until some time after their occurrence, and the Department have no record to show what became of the rejected cordite.
§ MR. BELLAIRSasked if in future the Department would take care that the War Office and Admiralty informed them of future rejections so as to prevent such explosives being sent out of the country.
§ MR. GLADSTONEreplied in the affirmative.