§ DR. MACDONALD (Ross and Cromarty)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will explain why it was that, out of about 250 men who came to Stornoway lately to be enrolled in the Naval Reserve, only fifty were enrolled, and after waiting about several days in the town the remainder were told they might go home, as no more could be enrolled, but on asking for the reason no answer was given them; and whether, there being already two thousand Naval Reserve men in the Lewis, and the Government having decided on increasing the force from eighteen thousand to twenty-seven thousand, Lewis was entitled as its share to have one thousand more men enrolled?
§ * LORD G. HAMILTONThe Royal Naval Reserve consists of two classes of men, first and second class; the numbers voted this year being respectively 10,800 and 10,600. There are now about two thousand Reserve men enrolled at Stornoway, all of whom, with the exception of about a hundred first class, are second class men of the fishermen class. This number is far larger than that in any other district in the United Kingdom, and it is not proposed to increase the proportion now allotted to Stornoway. The second class Reserve has been increased this year by only six hundred men, and it is not proposed in subsequent years to materially add to that number.