64. Dr. MURRAYasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions whether he is aware that an offer submitted by a London firm of estate agents and auctioneers, who were already disposing of surplus stores for other Government Departments, to the Ministry of Munitions, offering to provide their own 33 clerical staff to prepare from Ministry documents an account of the very large number of boxes and packing-cases supplied to the 10,000 Ministry contractors on free issue for the purpose of delivering stores, of which boxes no account had been kept, and to receive such boxes and packing cases and dispose of them by auction or otherwise on terms to be discussed, has never been acknowledged; whether millions of these boxes are still unsold, even though a large staff has now been engaged for the last twelve months dealing with them; what the cost of this establishment has amounted to; and the amount that will have to be written off as lost through no action being taken to ascertain the value of boxes with contractors on Armistice being declared?
Mr. HOPEOffers to dispose of boxes on behalf of the Ministry at a profit were received from more than one firm. They were carefully considered by the responsible officers of the Ministry and were not accepted. The statements that boxes have been supplied to 10,000 contractors on free issue, and that millions of boxes are still unsold, are both wild exaggerations. In August last it was found that the receipts from the sale of boxes recovered from contractors did not meet the cost of recovery. The work was, therefore, stopped and the staff engaged on it discharged. The cost of this staff is estimated to have been about £3,000.
Mr. HOPEI would ask my hon. Friend to be a little more careful as to the sources of his information. These allegations or similar allegations were inquired into by a special Committee last year, and were found to be wild exaggerations.
§ Mr. HOGGEMay I ask my hon. Friend how he knows what is the source of my information or that of anybody else if he has not inquired into it? Will he reply to my question, which is, if these statements are wild exaggerations, can he, who is in possession of the facts, tell the House the truth?
Mr. HOPEI know that my hon. Friend's information is inaccurate and that the statements are wild exaggerations from the Report of the Committee which inquired into this question.