MR. KEIR-HARDIE (West Ham, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether a man named Went-wood, drawing a pension of £54 per annum, has been appointed timekeeper at Chatham Dockyard at a wage of £1 9s. 9d. per week; whether competent men for the position of timekeeper, and who have no pensions, have recently been dismissed from the dockyard owing to slackness of work or shortness of money with which to pay their wages; and what special qualifications Wentwood possessed to secure him the situation in preference to these others?
§ THE CIVIL LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. E. ROBERTSON, Dundee)The statement in the first paragraph of the question is substantially correct, but the appointment is only temporary. The duties of timekeepers are of a clerical nature, and the appointments are always filled by Naval or Marine pensioners, who have to pass an examination before the Civil Service Commissioners. No competent men have recently been discharged from Chatham Yard.