Mr. COLLINSasked the. Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether it has been decided to print in bulk all forms for use in connection with future Parliamentary Elections and to supply these-from a central office to the returning officers in such numbers as they may require, spaces being left for the necessary local matter to be inserted by clerical labour; whether he is aware that several 1042W returning officers, who have been interviewed on the matter, have expressed their view that the cost of clerical labour involved, at a period of very high pressure in their Departments, will outweigh many times the saving which might be effected as a result of mass production where the number of the forms required runs into many hundreds; whether this is confirmed by the proposal that the printing of ballot papers shall in future be relegated to the local returning officer for him to make his own arrangements, thus showing that the supply from a central office of hurried printing work for an election has not been efficient or satisfactory; and whether he will institute an inquiry into the whole of the circumstances with a view to the withdrawal of work from local printers being obviated?
Mr. DAVIESI would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to-day to questions on this subject by the hon. Members for Weston-super-Mare (Mr. Murrell), the Harborough Division of Leicester (Mr. Block), and Montrose Burghs (Mr. Sturrock).