§ MR. LABOUCHEREasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether there is any Minute of the Lords of the Admiralty securing to the Royal Yacht Squadron the exclusive right to fly the white ensign; and, whether there is any special cause why the use of this flag should be granted to one particular yacht club, and to no other?
§ SIR THOMAS BRASSEYPerhaps the hon. Member will allow me, Sir, to answer this Question. By an Admiralty Minute of July 22, 1842, the privilege of wearing the white ensign of Her Majesty's Fleet was ordered to be confined to the Royal Yacht Squadron. The Order was given, as it is explained in a Return presented to the House of Commons on the 20th July, 1859, on the ground that the Royal Yacht Squadron is recognized as the leading yacht club of the United Kingdom.
§ MR. MACFARLANEIf confusion sometimes arises from the use by the Royal Yacht Squadron of the white ensign of Her Majesty's Fleet, will the hon. Gentleman consider the propriety—seeing that the Royal Yacht Squadron is by no means the largest yacht club in the United Kingdom—of reducing all yachts to the blue ensign, or, still better, to the red ensign of the Mercantile Marine?
§ MR. LABOUCHEREasked if the hon. Gentleman (Sir Thomas Brassey) was aware that, in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, there was a yacht squadron which by no means considered the Royal Yacht Squadron the chief yacht squadron. Was it proposed to give that the same privilege?
§ SIR THOMAS BRASSEY, in reply, said, he had stated the facts historically, and he was not authorized to announce any change.