§ SIR MAURICE LEVY (Leicestershire, Loughborough)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether his attention has been called to a speech implying that the boilers of H.M.S. "Dreadnought" were made abroad; whether he will say by what firm and where they were made; whether the order for the boilers was given by the present or the late Government; and whether the payment for the boilers was authorised by the present or the late Chancellor of the Exchequer.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) My attention has already been drawn to the speech to which my hon. friend refers. The boilers of H.M.S. "Dreadnought" were made by Messrs. Vickers, Sons, and Maxim, as principal contractors, assisted by Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox, as sub-contractors, at the works at Barrow and Renfrew respectively. These boilers were made under Admiralty inspection, as is the case with all machinery for His Majesty's ships. All payments on account of these boilers mere made in the financial year 1905–6, the first instalment on 8th November, 1905, and the last on the 14th March, 1906.