§ Mr. CHARLES BATHURSTasked the Secretary for War (1) whether, in view of the disparity between the amounts of forage appearing upon the requisitions to the Army forage contractor for the camps on Salisbury Plain by the Army Service Corps officer in charge of the forage supply, and alleged by the contractor to have been supplied, and the amounts appearing in such officer's stock books, for which alone the contractor receives payment, he will consider the advisability, as a matter of business, of requiring a receipt for all forage actually delivered to be given by the Army Service Corps officer to the contractor or his agent, and so obviate the dissatisfaction resulting from the present system; (2) whether he is aware that during the months of August, September, and October, 1910, the Army Service Corps officer in charge of the forage supply repeatedly declined to take from the Army forage contractor on Salisbury Plain contract hay of admittedly good quality from the same farm and out of the same stacks as hay previously accepted, on the footing that the units were tired of it; that the same officer passed for acceptance in October several tons of hay at Bulford, Netheravon, and Tidworth camps which a month previously he had himself rejected at Hamilton camp; and whether, in view of the uncertainty and loss to the contractor resulting from such methods, he will take steps to put the selection and supply of forage upon a more satisfactory and businesslike footing?
§ Mr. HALDANENegotiations are in course for the settlement of the points in dispute, and it is not, therefore, possible to give any information at present.