§ MR. HOWORTH (Salford, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty is it a fact that no matter how efficient, or how many lives may be saved, the Chief Officer in the Coastguard has the same rate of pay on the first day he is promoted as after 20 or more years' service, which is contrary to the usage of all other Naval servants of the Crown, and especially of those who have risen from the ranks, and that although these officers may be appointed to the command of Coastguard divisions they continue to receive 6s. per diem; would he explain why these officers are only given 20s. per annum for their seamen's time, while those who have served with them under precisely the same circumstances get 30s.; and what difference is made in the pensions of those officers who command divisions to those who remain chief officers of stations?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONChief officers of Coastguard do not receive an increase of pay after promotion to that rank, nor when appointed to the command of a division, but these officers in certain cases receive a considerable addition to their substantive pay in the form of allowances for duties connected with the Royal Naval Reserve. Chief officers of Coastguard are still pensioned upon the scale applied to Warrant officers prior to 1870, as it was not considered necessary to extend to them the higher rate of 30s. now allowed to Warrant officers serving afloat. No difference is made between the pensions of chief officers in command of divisions and those of officers in charge of stations.