asked whether any orders for bayonets have recently been given by the War Office either to the Government factories or to any private firm?

As the rearmament with the long bayonet is completed the amount of bayonet work required at present is not more than sufficient to keep a small nucleus of men employed at Enfield. There is therefore no opportunity of placing orders elsewhere. It is expected that the output at Enfield during the current financial year will amount to about 30,000 bayonets.

Did not a former Secretary for War give an undertaking that when more bayonets were ordered a cetrain proportion should be given to private trade, and now that 30,000 are on order should not at least one-third of that be so given?

I cannot add anything to the answer I have given.

I shall renew the question.