MR. R. G. WEBSTERI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty (1) will he explain why, out of the 6,028 seamen who were discharged from Her Majesty's Fleet in 1895–6, only 1,372 received pensions; (2) what was the average service of those not pensioned in that period, and their average age; and (3) what were the respective numbers of those pensioned and not pensioned, who left the Navy in 1895–6, who joined the Royal Naval Reserve?
§ MR. MACARTNEYThe answer to the first paragraph of the hon. Member's Question is that only those seamen discharged from the fleet in 1895–6 received pensions who were entitled to them according to the regulations. To answer the second paragraph would involve a prolonged and laborious search through the registers, for which there would be no compensating advantage to the public service. As regards the third 513 paragraph, I am unable to say how many of the men who left the Navy in 1895–96 joined the Royal Naval Reserve, but 86 men who had at one time or other served in the Navy joined the Reserve in that year.