HC Deb 10 May 1888 vol 325 cc1825-6
CAPTAIN PRICE (Devonport)

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether he will lay upon the Table of the House the Correspondence which has passed between the Treasury and the Admiralty relative to the remuneration of the Seamen Pensioners' Reserve out of the Funds of Greenwich Hospital; and, whether there is any precedent for using the funds of a "Charitable Institution" for the payment of the Forces of the Crown?

THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)

If the correspondence is really desired, there is no objection on the part of the Treasury to its presentation. It is a little misleading to speak of the Funds of Greenwich Hospital as though they were those of a Charitable Institution, founded for the sole purpose of relieving some particular form of distress. Parliament has enacted that Her Majesty in Council may grant from the Hospital Funds— Such pensions as seem fit to officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the Royal Navy, In addition to any half-pay, pension, or other allowance coming to them otherwise, and may Prescribe the conditions on which such pensions are to be held. In the exercise of this statutory power, Her Majesty in Council has prescribed that— In the case of Pensioners who join the Seamen Pensioners' Reserve Force, an age pension of 5d. a-day may be awarded at the ago of 50 under certain conditions. The existence of the Statute makes it unnecessary to cite precedents. But there is no novelty in a Pensioner being called upon to render service in the Auxiliary Forces of the Crown.