§ MR. HUNTER (Aberdeen, N.)I beg to ask the Civil Lord of the Admiralty whether he has made further inquiry into the case of the men alleged to have been dismissed from the Deptford Dockyard for signing a Petition to the Admiralty; and, if so, whether he will state the result of his inquiries?
§ THE CIVIL LORD or THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. E. ROBERTSON, Dundee)I have already stated, as the result of inquiry, that the men referred to were not employed by the Admiralty, and had not been interfered with by that Department. Further inquiries have been made, and I have before me the statements of the foreman of works and the assistant civil engineer, the only Admiralty officials who are in charge of the works at Deptford. The statements are too long to read; but the foreman says—
I had taken no steps whatever to get rid of these men. I should have taken them on the works as usual the next morning if they had not been sent away.The assistant civil engineer, who has been specially accused of ordering the discharge, says—I made no inspection of the men, nor did I speak to any of them on the subject. The first I heard of any men being taken off the works was through my foreman on Monday, the 8th May. The discharge was not brought about in any way at the instigation of the Works Department.This is confirmed by the foreman, who says he reported the discharge to the engineer on Monday the 8th, and that the engineer had not been in the Yard at all during the four preceding days. Since I received these statements, the contractor (Mr. Holloway) has written to the newspapers a letter, in which he says—Being contractor for the works and supplying my own workmen, I was perfectly within my rights to retain them in my employ or discharge them if circumstances or necessity arose for my doing so.I hope the House will be of opinion that this evidence entirely exonerates the Admiralty officials concerned. In justice to the men who have thus been maligned, I think it right to say that any person might have discovered on slight inquiry that the allegations were untrue. It is 48 the known practice of the Admiralty to receive Petitions freely from its workmen; and this year we have received 251 such Petitions; and my right hon. Friend and myself have personally heard quite as many deputations in support of them. Although this Petition came from men who were not in our employment, particular attention has been given to it; and care will be taken that it shall not be prejudiced by misstatements for which, so far as we know, the Petitioners themselves are not responsible.