§ Major GLYNasked the Secretary of State for War whether any steps have yet been taken, or whether it is intended, to re-transfer back to the War Office those 697W departments and sections which, on the formation of the Ministry of Munitions, were transferred to that Ministry; whether it has been decided to take over from the Ministry of Munitions those departments and sections of administration concerning military ordnance, stores, etc., established during the War; whether the Ministry of Munitions was during this year dealt with by the War Office as the Ministry of Supply; and whether there as any Cabinet authority for that title or for assuming the continuance of the Ministry of Munitions after the sale of surplus material has been completed with in a reasonable time?
§ Mr. FORSTERPending a decision on the future of the Ministry of Munitions, certain provisional arrangements were made earlier in the year between the War Office and the Ministry of Munitions. Broadly the effect of these arrangements was to transfer back to the War Office the responsibility for the design, inventions, research and experimental services connected with Ordnance, Tanks and other War material; and to transfer to the Ministry of Munitions the Contracts Directorate, the Raw Materials Directorate, and the Salvage Disposal Board t hat formed the group of departments for which the present Minister of Munitions had been responsible as Surveyor-General of Supply at the War Office. As I have already stated, the arrangements are provisional and subject to the decision on the general question involved, on which I must refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the answer given by the Leader of the House on Monday last to the hon. and gallant Member for Finchley.