§ Considered in Committee.
§ [Sir DENNIS HERBERT in the Chair.]
§ Clauses 1 to 10 agreed to.
353§ CLAUSE 11. £ (Short Title and extent.) Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."
§ The ChairmanI have passed Clause 3. I am calling the Clauses one by one.
Mr. AdamsI thought we were at liberty at raise a question any time after you had run through the Clauses.
§ The ChairmanI was calling the Clauses one by one as arranged and as we have been doing, hon. Members being asked to intervene on any clause and stop the Chair proceeding when they desire to speak on such clause.
§ Question, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to. Bill reported, without Amendment.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, ''That the Bill be now read the Third time."
§ 3.35 p.m.
Mr. David AdamsThere is one matter on which I should like some information. Under Clause 3 the Minister may, with the consent of the Treasury, make a scheme applying a pensions order to mariners and so forth in case of death or disablement. As the Committee may be aware, there are in existence a number of schemes for granting pensions and retiring allowances to masters, officers and engineering staffs in the Mercantile Marine, and there are also certain firms which have schemes of compensation for injuries sustained during peace years. The new proposals in the Bill apply to disabilities or death which may be suffered due to enemy action. What I desire to know is whether the previous allowances which may have been granted in peacetime to retired mariners or engineers who may re-enter the Mercantile Marine during the war will be safeguarded. Will war pensions and allowances be granted regardless of the means of the prospective recipients or not?
§ Sir W. WomersleyI can assure my hon. Friend that those pre-war allowances and pensions are not affected in any way by this scheme.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read the Third time, and passed.