6 and 82. Major BARNESasked the First Lord of the Admiralty (1) why duties in connection with the national shipyards were, in September, 1917, entrusted to the Directorate of Lands for the War Office when similar duties were being satisfactorily discharged for his department by the Valuation Branch of the Board of Inland Revenue; (2) for what reason, in view of the fact that the Admiralty had entrusted matters dealing with the acquisition of land and buildings to the Valuation Branch of the Board of Inland Revenue, he placed such matters in the hands of the Lands Directorate of the War Office?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of SHIPPING (Colonel Leslie Wilson)The arrangement referred to by the hon. and gallant Member 1257 was a convenient one—the Directorate of Lands for the War Office and Ministry of Munitions having undertaken duties of a similar nature in relation to the shipyard at Richborough. Many of the officers engaged upon that undertaking were transferred to the Admiralty in June, 1917, on the staff of the new Admiralty Controller, under whom the general arrangements in connection with the National Shipyards were carried out as part of the general programme of merchant shipbuilding.