ADMIRAL MAYNE (Pembroke and Haverfordwest)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the large reduction which has been made in the Navy Estimates for the ensuing year has enabled him to overcome the "financial difficulties" which he experienced last year in obtaining from the Treasury the proceeds of naval mulcts, fines, unclaimed prize money, unclaimed deceased men's estates, and the sale of slush, in order that this money, properly belonging to the Royal Navy, may be used for the carrying out of the scheme of pensions to the widows of Seamen and Marines, as recommended by the Duke of Edinburgh's Committee?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)No final decision has yet been come to as to the appropriation of naval mulcts, &c, which is one of the proposals contained in the scheme submitted by the Duke of Edinburgh's Committee. The Admiralty have been unable to accept this scheme as a whole, as it touched age pensions. I hope later on to be able to give some definite information as to how the money in question is to be dealt with.