§ MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the reply he has advised His Majesty to give to the memorial presented to His Majesty on 20th February last, through the Secretary of State, as to the work connected with the National Memorial to Queen Victoria being entrusted to foreigners in England and abroad.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The Answer I have to give is that I have, by the King's command, given careful consideration to the prayer of the petition, but regret that I have been unable to advise His Majesty to take any action in the matter. On such occasions as this the choice of workmen and the 403 method of carrying out the work are invariably left in the hands of the sculptor entrusted with its execution, and in this case his reasons for having the hard Sicilian marble, which was chosen for the central portion of the Queen Victoria Memorial, in order to ensure as much resistance as possible to the London climate, worked at the quarries at Carrara, appear to me to be conclusive. In the first place, this plan has afforded an opportunity of securing in the rough the most suitable and enduring material, free from all flaws and defects. Secondly, it has ensured a better result by the employment of men accustomed from their boyhood to the working of extremely hard marble such as that selected. Thirdly, it has saved the great expense of importing over a thousand tons of raw material which in the course of working would have had to be discarded owing to the discovery of defects. I may add that the granite for the steps and paving of the central portion of the memorial, as well as all the surrounding architectural work, is being carried out by British workmen.