§ MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington)To ask the Secretary of State for War, if he can state the total amount involved in the contracts for general stores and other manufactured articles secured by foreign firms during the last two years; and if he will classify the goods in question and state what sum has been saved to the Exchequer by making those purchases abroad instead of in this country.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.)—Manufactured Articles * ordered from 842 abroad (including those obtained through agents in this country).
| Article. | Value of contracts, 1906–7. | Value of contracts, 1907–8. |
| £ | £ | |
| Acetone | 22,925 | 72,203 |
| Air-composer | — | 193 |
| Aluminium | — | 297 |
| Ambulance, cycle | 22 | — |
| Ammeters | — | — |
| Antimony, regulus | 1,179 | 255 |
| Antimony, sulphide | 31 | 16 |
| Apparatus, wireless telegraphy | — | — |
| Apparatus, self-registering | — | — |
| Apparatus, pattern-producing | — | — |
| Asbestos fibre | 108 | — |
| Billiard balls, bonzo-line | 71 | 221 |
| Binoculars and parts | 196 | 312 |
| Blocks, pulley | — | — |
| Blocks, chain | 24 | — |
| Board leather and straw | 10 | 151 |
| Bottles, water | 52 | — |
| Brandy | — | 547 |
| Bugles, &c. | — | — |
| Butter | 171 | — |
| Carbons, electric light | — | 3 |
| Carbon shot | — | 106 |
| Cartridge cases | — | — |
| Castings, steel | — | — |
| Chairs | — | 1,337 |
| Chalk, prepared | — | 36 |