§ Sir T. ESMONDEasked the Secretary of State for War if he will give the names and qualifications of the various persons employed by the authorities to purchase hay and straw for the Army in Ireland?
§ Mr. FORSTERIt would be quite impossible to give all this information within the permissible limits of an answer to a. question. Generally speaking, I may state that the staff of the Forage Department in Ireland have been selected and recommended by the Department of Agriculture, and that they are the sons of farmers brought up on the land, and that they have in many cases passed through the agricultural course of the Royal College of Science with honours. I may add that every purchasing officer employed in Ireland is a skilled man at his work and has passed through a probationary course in this Department before being employed on purchasing duty.