§ Colonel DAYasked the Postmaster-General, if he is aware that a fleet of motor vans, not wholly of British manufacture, has recently been purchased by his Department for use at the Birmingham post office; whether tenders were asked from manufacturers of purely British motor vehicles; and is it intended that motor cars made by British labour should have preference over vans of American manufacture in view of the Prime Minister's appeal to buy British Goods?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONThe answer to the, first and third parts of the question is in the affirmative and to the second in the negative. Experimental orders were placed early this year for vehicles of purely British manufacture, but the test of those has not yet been sufficient to show that they are entirely suitable for the peculiar requirements of the mail service. The vans referred to in the first part of the question are British-made Fords, and I am informed that over 90 per cent. of the labour and material employed in their manufacture is British.