§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ THE LORD OF THE TREASURY: (Sir EDWARD J. REED) (Cardiff)This Bill, of which I rise to move the second reading, is little more than a Declaratory Bill. The Naval Discipline Act of 1879 distinguished between offences of a military and ordinary character, and a certain portion of the prisons were appropriated for the former. A question then 577 arose whether the Regulations of the Secretary of State of 1877 were applicable to those prisons which had passed to the control of the Army and Navy authorities. One of the consequences was that certain officers have been deprived of their pensions, and it is to rectify that that the present Bill is introduced.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."—(Sir Edward J. Reed.)
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Londonderry, S.)I think it right that the officers who do the work should be remunerated; but the action of the Government in this matter is unequal—they seem to single out a certain class of officers for pensions. Officers in lunatic asylums, for instance, are treated in quite a different manner from others. I am glad the Bill has been introduced; but I think that the Government should deal with the Public Service in this respect as a whole and upon one principle.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ Bill read a second time, and committed for To-morrow.