§ CAPTAIN PRICE (Devonport)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether it is his intention to call up any of the Pensioners' Reserve for service at the forthcoming Naval Review; and, whether it is to be understood that a Naval Pensioner, when called upon to serve, shall receive the pay of the rating which he held on discharge, as in the case of a Marine Pensioner; or, if not, what is the reason of the difference?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)It is not intended to call up any of the Pensioners' Reserve for service at the forthcoming Naval Review. It is not possible to lay down, as a fixed rule, that a Naval Pensioner, when called upon to serve, shall receive the pay of the rating which he held on discharge in addition to his pension; but in so far as the exigencies of the Service will permit, Naval Pensioners will be given ratings not inferior to those which they held on being pensioned. The difficulties occurring in the case of Naval Pensioners receiving the same rating when called upon to serve, do not apply to Royal Marine Pensioners, who, as they must have been either sergeants, corporals, or privates when pensioned, could without difficulty be employed in such ratings. The great number and variety of ratings in which seamen are employed render it im- 1797 possible to promise that seamen pensioners should have, when called upon to serve, the same rating as when pensioned.