§ MR. CAINEI beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if it is the fact that on board H.M.S. Victory, No. 1, lying at Portsmouth, the sailors are compelled to take up their daily allowance of rum; if there is an Order extant to the effect that temperance men have certain allowances instead of their rum ration; and, if so, why is this Order set aside on board the Victory; if he is aware that this Order was made not only to encourage total abstinence among the men, but to prevent those who did not consume the rum ration giving it away to others who did, with much consequent drunkenness; and is it true that men on board the Victory have been punished for drunkenness thus produced?
SIR U. KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH(1.) The Admiralty Regulations are carried out, and no one is compelled to take up his daily allowance of rum, either on board the Victory or on any other of Her Majesty's ships. (2.) Certain substituted rations are allowed instead of rum, and 798 of these were issued on the Victory, No. 1, in the first quarter of 1893, while savings for rum not taken up were also paid to the extent of 10,384 rations, exclusive of savings paid to officers. (3.) This Order was made with a view to encouraging temperance; but, under another and older Regulation, the sale, loan, transfer, gift, or barter of spirit or other intoxicating drink to or with any of the ship's company, by any person whatsoever, is prohibited, and savings for rum rations not taken up are allowed. (4.) Men are punished for drunkenness on board, however caused; but the cases are very few, only four having been so punished since the 1st January. In each case inquiry was made as to where the liquor traffic came from, and there is no evidence that it came from the mess.