§ MR. BRADLAUGHI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether his attention has been called to the statement in the Globe of Thursday last—
That in consequence of the scarcity of Engineer Officers at the various Steam Reserves, the Admiralty are seriously considering the desirability of re-employing the most efficient probationary assistant engineers at the College at Greenwich before the completion of their studies";and to the statement in the Civil Service Guide—That it is not possible yet to fix the date of the intended examination in June for candidates from the Technical Colleges for the appoint- 1812 ment of probationary assistant engineer, as, up to the present, only one candidate has expressed his intention of coming forward to compete for the 10 vacancies offered by the Admiralty;whether these statements are true; and whether he can give the House any further information as to the supply of Engineer Officers?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingThe Admiralty are not considering the desirability of reemploying the probationary assistant engineers at the Royal Naval College before the completion of the studies; but should their services be specially required, they would be withdrawn from the college for appointment to ships, as has been done in former years. The date of the examination of canditates from the Technical Colleges has been recently fixed to commence on Thursday the 29th of May next, and a satisfactory number of applications, namely, 20, have been already received. I have nothing to add to my previous statement that an adequate supply of candidates for the engineering branch of the Naval Service can always be obtained.
§ MR. BRADLAUGHI think the noble Lord has overlooked one portion of the question, namely, where I asked whether the requirements in reference to examinations have been dispensed with, owing to the scarcity of Engineer Officers?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI am informed that there has been no departure from the former practice.