§ MR. CLAUDE HAYI beg to ask the Prime Minister whether, since his acceptance of the office of First Lord of the Treasury and that of Prime Minister, Ministers, other than the Secretary of State for War, have attended at the War Office, called for Departmental Papers and examined officers and officials under the control of the Secretary of State; what Ministers have been so employed, and whether they carried out their investigations with or without the presence of the Secretary of State for War; whether these visits were concluded prior to the pledge given by the Secretary of State for War that no further reductions of the infantry of the line were in contemplation; and whether he can give a pledge that the administration of the War Department will in future be conducted by the Ministers enjoying the powers conferred on the Secretary for War by the Royal Sign-manual.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fifeshire, E.There is no foundation in fact for any of the allegations or suggestions contained in this Question.