§ 38. Mr. ROSEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions what was the total estimated cost or value 543 of the State factories and other buildings and their equipment at or about the date of the Armistice; what at this same date was the estimated cost or value of the stocks of materials, machinery, vehicles, and other commodities in the possession of the Ministry; and how much of this property has been sold down to the present date?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYThe estimated cost of National Factories and Royal Ordnance Factories, including land, buildings, plant, machinery and storehouses, as at 11th November, 1918, was £65,000,000. I cannot at present give a definite answer to the second and third parts of the question, as the Disposal Board, which has been made responsible for the sale of surplus Government property, has only just completed its organisation.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODThese figures do not include Government shipyards?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYNo.
§ 39. Mr. ROSEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions if he is aware that some of the national factories are particularly well fitted for the development of the cycle, motor cycle, and motor car and van industry, and that quantities of these articles are annually required by the Government itself for the use of the various Public Departments; whether he will therefore take steps to utilise such national factories for the manufacture of these things for the supply of the Government's own needs, instead of selling out the factories to war profiteers who have already, as the Excess Profits Duty statistics prove, made profits out of the contracts placed by his Department?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYThe possibility of using national factories for the manufacture of commodities required in considerable quantities by the Government is being carefully investigated. As the Government possess very largo surplus stocks of motor vehicles, I should not be justified at present in devoting a national factory to their manufacture.