§ MR. CARLILE (Hertfordshire, St. Albans)To ask the Secretary of State for War what is the explanation of the decrease of £239,000 in the Estimates for 475 materials and stores for Woolwich Arsenal, Enfield, and Waltham Abbey for the year 1908–1909.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) This decrease is partly due to reduced requirements in stores to be manufactured for the Army, the Navy, India, and the Colonies. It is also accounted for by a fall in the price of metals and by the abandonment of a proposed system which was provided for in the year 1907–1908 of charging to the Ordnance Factories Vote the value of component parts issued to the Ordnance Factories for repairs, etc., from Army and Navy stocks. I may add that no decrease in the reserve stocks of stores is contemplated.