On Monday and Tuesday the House of Commons debated, with
a certain lassitude, yet in speeches often full of fury, what was really a vote of censure on the Government for its conduct of the war. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman moved for immediate inquiry into all contracts, whether for remounts, meat, forage, freights, or transports, and supported his Motion in a bitter but somewhat vague speech. Substantially his allegation was that £120,000,000 had been expended through contractors and middlemen, that in choosing such persons favouritism had been shown to certain firms—" for the most part naturalised firms "—whose names always recurred, and that in consequence the Government had been overcharged to enormous amounts. He dwelt especially upon the waste and failures in providing remounts, and upon the great profits divided or retained by the Cold Storage Company, and deduced from the fact that the name of Messrs. Houlder constantly re- appears in connection with transport contracts the conclusion that there was a potent organisation behind the scenes pulling the wires, rather than an open competition. Indeed, the speech leaves on the reader's mind the impression that the leader of the Opposition, though he did not exactly say so, wished to intimate his belief that contracts for the war were monopolised by a syndicate of the Jewish firms connected with South Africa, and that the War Office for some reason had played into their hands. He gave no specific evidence, and did not allege that, except as to remounts, the Army was ill-supplied, but demanded inquiry upon the grounds of waste and favouritism.
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