§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, whether the seamen of H.M.S. Asia have been paid off; and, if not, how long it will be before they will receive the wages due to them; whether he is aware that the seamen of Her Majesty's ships are, as a rule, kept waiting for two or three weeks after the end of each quarter before receiving any payment; and, whether, if on inquiry this should be found to be the case, he will take steps to cause the men to be paid in future without any such delay?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)No orders for paying off Her Majesty's ship Asia have been issued. The men in sea-going ships are paid monthly, and in harbour ships weekly; but in order to make the quarterly settlement ordered by the Regulations, the last weekly payment in each quarter is held over the last day of that month. This defers the weekly payment at the end of each quarter for a few days. There seems to be no sufficient grounds for making any alteration in the Regulations.