69. Mr. DOYLEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions whether he is aware that the Surplus Disposal Board have offered for disposal a quantity of 65,000 unused solid tyres, and 25,000 unused pneumatic motor tyres, at present lying at the Slough depôt; that with the exception of 8,000 of the pneumatic tyres, which have been sorted, the officials of the Board have no record of the sizes, types, or makes of these tyres, and that consequently they can only be sold at a heavy loss; that large quantities of tyres are still being bought from tyre manufacturers for current requirements, and as there is no record of the sizes of the tyres lying at Slough, it is probable that the Department may be buying the same sizes and types as are now lying at Slough; and whether he is aware that the present approximate cost of such a quantity of tyres would be from half to three-quarters of a million sterling, and if he will cause an investigation to be undertaken as to the persons responsible for such wasteful lack of system?
Mr. HOPEThe Disposal Board have now no tyres at the Slough Depôt, which was sold, with all surplus transport and spares, on the 7th April last. No purchases of solid tyres have been made by the Ministry of Munitions on behalf of the Government since the Armistice, but 38,000 pneumatic covers of various sizes were required by the War Office in June, 1919, and as no supplies were available from surplus stocks, contracts were placed with the trade.
§ Mr. BILLINGIs the hon. Gentleman aware that some £750,000 worth of these tyres were lying in stock at Slough, and will some inquiry be made as to who was responsible for buying 36,000 tyres, when there were three times that number of the same size lying in the country?
Mr. HOPEThe War Office said that they wished to have these tyres, and an examination by the Ministry of Munitions and the Disposal Board revealed the fact that they had not the particular tyres that the War Office required.
§ Mr. BILLINGIs it not a fact that the War Office wanted the ordinary standard tyres, and that there were stocks of standard tyres, and who was responsible for telling the War Office that they had not got them, when they had got them?