41. Colonel JACKSONasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he has yet been able to ascertain the facts of the case of an Essex wheelwright who is said to have received two cheques for £05 each in payment of an account for Os. 5d.?
42. Major DAVIESasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he can now say whether the military authorities paid two cheques of £95 each to a wheelwright in Essex in payment of an account of Os. 5d.; and whether he can now state the result of the inquiries which were to be made in the matter?
§ Mr. FORSTERI am much obliged to my hon. Friends for giving me the opportunity of dealing with the matter. We have been trying to get to the bottom of this story ever since it was first published several months ago, but so far we have been able to discover absolutely no foundation in fact. It seems to be one of those silly stories, starting no one knows how, or where, or when, which people apparently love to believe and pass from mouth to mouth till at length they are published. As far as we have been able to discover, the story is wholly untrue; but if the incident did indeed occur, I hope that I may be furnished with the name and address of the person to whom the payment was made. According to the story, he was moved by a sense of honesty and fair dealing in trying to return the overpayment, and in these circumstances I cannot understand why he should hesitate to reveal his name, if indeed he exists.