Marquess of CLYDESDALE:

It is very unpleasant to have to censure a local authority and particularly so when one has to censure a local authority which happens to be the Glasgow Corporation, but I rise to support my hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow (Sir A. Baillie) in what he has said. The Glasgow Corporation called for sealed tenders and I submit that they have violated the sanctity of them. If the tenders had not been sealed one would have expected the local authority, who presumably had the welfare of the unemployed at heart, had the price been the same, to choose the national companies, who employ a large number of workers in Scotland. Actually the price was not the same, the national companies' price was cheaper, and yet the first thing they did was to carry out negotiations, and I believe that they approached first the Russian firm. My hon. Friend has gone into these negotiations and I will merely say that the methods by which these negotiations have been carried out are highly unsatisfactory. There is one point upon which I disagree with my hon. Friend, and that is in regard to the reply of the Secretary of State for Scotland on the 7th. I do not think it was altogether unsatisfactory, for he said that he was making further inquiries into the question. In view of the grave concern which has been caused in Scotland as regards the way in which these negotiations have been carried out, will the Secretary of State institute an inquiry into this case?