ADMIRAL MAYNE (Pembroke and Haverfordwest)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the public money would be saved by retaining the Anson at Pembroke Dock until she is much nearer completion than she will be next month, especially as most of what remains to be fitted is actually on board the ship or at Pembroke Dockyard, as Hobb's Point will be vacated by the time the Anson is ready to go there; and, as the contemplated Naval Review will throw so much additional work on Portsmouth Yard this summer as to delay the work upon the Anson if she goes there, whether he has considered if it would be more economical to send the Gunnery Officers from Portsmouth to Pembroke, to give the necessary instructions as to the gunnery and torpedo fittings of ships built at Pembroke, than sending the ships in an unfinished state to ports where all kinds of labour are dearer than in Wales, and much work is pulled to pieces and redone?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)We have carefully considered this question, and we find that sending the Anson to Portsmouth will be the cheapest and most expeditious course for completing and making this ship ready for commission. It would not be economical to send gunnery and torpedo officers to Pembroke. The cost of labour in Portsmouth Dockyard is the same as in Pembroke Yard, the rates of pay being uniform. The new Regulations issued and control exercised under them have put an end to the wasteful practice alluded to, by which it was in the power of one Dockyard to pull to pieces work done in another.