§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S. E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will consider the dress of the Ordnance Store labourers at Purfleet, which is complained of as insufficient, particularly as regards their slippers, in which they have to work both inside and outside the magazines; and whether he will equalise the rate of wages between Purfleet and Woolwich, the one being 18s. and the other 19s. 6d., both sets of men doing the same work?
§ *MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANNo complaints have been received as to any insufficiency of the Magazine clothing 1248 at Purfleet. As was fully explained in this House on the 30th November, 1893, the rate of 19s. 6d. a week at Woolwich is given in recognition of the relatively high cost of living there. The minimum rate at Purfleet was, in 1893, increased from 16s. 6d. to 18s. a week.