§ SIR GEORGE BADEN-POWELL (Liverpool, Kirkdale)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Discharge of British Seamen abroad has yet been sent in, and whether it will be presented to Parliament; whether the scheme for the transmission of seamen's wages experimentally tried at Dunkerque, has already been extended to four other Continental ports; and whether the present excessive charges on seamen's money orders can be abolished, seeing that the fees for discharges of seamen more than cover the cost of extra office work entailed on the Consulates by the new system?
§ MR. RITCHIEI have not yet received the Report to which my hon. Friend refers, but I understand that it will be sent in shortly, and it shall in due course be presented to Parliament. The transmission scheme for seamen's wages, experimentally tried at Dunkerque, has been extended to three other Continental ports—viz., to Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam. The question whether it is desirable to abolish the fee charged for sending home seamen's wages is receiving consideration.