§ Brigadier-General CROFTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions, (1) whether Messrs. Lever Brothers on 9th December, 1919, called upon Mr. P. Dawson and asked the price of the St. Omer dump of lorries, including stores, assuming the number of Leyland lorries to be 961, and were informed that the price was £450,000 on the spot; that in the event of sale the military guard would be withdrawn and that the Government could give no facilities whatsoever as regards shipping or otherwise; whether on 13th December Messrs. Lever Brothers wrote to Mr. P. Dawson offering £450,000 for the St. Omer dump on the terms of deferred payment suggested by him in the interview of 9th December;
(2) whether the St. Omer dump of lorries and stores offered to Messrs. Lever Brothers at £450,000 on deferred payment, which price was agreed to by Messrs. Lever Brothers, was ultimately sold to Mr. Henry Spurrier, chairman of the Leyland Motor Company, for £500,000 on a system of easy payments; whether a guard was provided at the cost of the Government; whether the Leyland Motor Company were promised facilities for bringing the vehicles by train-ferry to Rich-borough; whether these combined facilities represented an advantage of £60,000 and, if not, what is the estimated amount; whether, these facts being considered, the offer of Messrs. Lever Brothers was more advantageous to the country than that of the Leyland Motor Company; and whether to the list of purchases was added, approximately, another 200 Leyland lorries, and if this addition was included in the price paid, namely, £500,000?
Mr. HOPEWhat is known as the St. Omer dump was never offered to Lever Brothers, or to anyone else for £450,000, although that figure was mentioned by Mr. Philip Dawson as the lowest which he could submit to the Minister. The dump was offered to Lever Brothers for £500,000, and was declined by them on December 20th. Two days after, by the Minister's directions, it was sold to Ley-land Motors for £500,000. The terms and conditions of the offer accepted by Ley-land Motors and the offer refused by1456W Lever Brothers, were in all respects the same.