HC Deb 05 July 1888 vol 328 c412
MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether complaints have reached him that on Wednesday, June 27, the Commander of H.M.S. Monarch kept some six men at drill aloft on the royal yard for more than one hour in a heavy downpour of rain; whether the ship was at the time lying alongside the Dockyard; and, whether there was any special reason or necessity for the men being so used?

THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)

The Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth informs me that the circumstance alluded to in the Question is greatly exaggerated, and that there is nothing in the matter calling for his interference.