§ Mr. BELLAIRSasked the First Lord of the Admiralty why the stock of stores on foreign stations has been cut down to such an extent that in the July quarter of 1908 it was impossible for ships to obtain at Sydney, the headquarters of the Australian station, any thin socks, black 1455 shoes, brown canvas shoes, duck caps, cotton drawers, jean combination suits, and manufactured tobacco; and why, in the Christmas quarter of 1908, no oilskin suits, canvas suits, towels, boots, blue jean, white hats, thin stockings, and drill cap-covers could be obtained?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe articles enumerated are almost exclusively new or improved pattern articles introduced as a result of the Committee on Seamen's Uniform of 1907, and it is not a question of reduction of stocks at all, but of the time taken by contractors to supply the very large quantities required as first stocks of the new patterns.
§ Mr. BELLAIRSDoes that answer account for such articles as towels, boots, white hats, cap covers, etc.?
§ Mr. McKENNAIt will apply to almost the whole of the articles. [Reading the question.] Yes, to towels, boots, but not the whole of the articles. As regards the cap covers, these were not new. There was, in fact, no shortage of them.
§ Mr. BELLAIRSasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether the cause of the breakdown of the supply of foreign stations with stores is that the stock had been so drawn upon with a view to keeping down the Estimates that Deptford Yard was unable to comply with the demands; and whether he will take steps to remedy the inconvenience caused and so enable men on the Australian station to go about in clean rigs, and to wear hats, when hats are the rig of the day, and other necessary articles of clothing?
§ Mr. McKENNAThere has been no breakdown in the supply of stores to foreign stations, and the supply arrangements are wholly unaffected by the reduction in the reserves at the home victualling yards. The circumstances in which certain new or improved pattern articles of clothing did not become available on foreign stations, until after they had come into use in the fleets in home waters, has been explained in reply to Question No. 80. According to the latest information, the state of the stocks of these new articles at Sydney in the middle of March admitted of all ships' requirements being met.
§ Mr. ASHLEYOn what ground was the reserve stores of three millions used up in the last three years?
§ Mr. McKENNAThat is a very large question to reply to in the way of a supplementary answer.