§ MR. W. H. SMITHasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, If the statements which appeared in the "Army and Navy Gazette" of Saturday last, as to the conclusions arrived at by the Naval Pensions Committee are correct; whether the Admiralty have adopted the recommendations of the Committee; if it be true that it is proposed now to require blue jackets who have served for ten years to re-engage for a period of twelve years, instead of ten, as heretofore, to enable them to claim a pension; and, whether, as the Report of the Committee has appeared in detail in the newspapers, it will now be presented to the House?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe Report of the Pensions Committee is a confidential Paper, submitted by a Departmental Committee for the information and assistance of the Admiralty, and there is no intention to make it public. I can only conjecture that a copy has been improperly obtained, from which the writer of the article alluded to by the right hon. Gentleman has compiled his account of the Committee's conclusions. I have not compared the statements in the article with the text of the Report, so as to be able to say whether they are accurate; but in regard to the particular matter of the length of service of seamen, the article, as I stated on Tuesday last, in answer to the hon. and gallant Member for East Derbyshire (Admiral Egerton), entirely misrepresents the intentions of the Admiralty, as announced by me when introducing the Navy Estimates.