§ MR. B. S. STRAUS (Tower Hamlets, Mile End)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he can enforce the payment of the same rates of wages from the London Small Arms Company on Government contracts as are paid by the War Office at Enfield, as the wages paid by the London Small Arms Company are much below the wages paid by the Government for the same work.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) There is no power to compel the adoption by contractors of rates of wages paid in Government factories, but the fair wages clause in War Office contracts requires the payment of such wages as are generally accepted as current in each trade for competent workmen in the district where the work is carried out, 1402 and if any evidence is produced to show that this clause is being infringed the matter shall be at once investigated.