§ MR. H. E. KEARLEY (Devonport)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether there still continues a considerable deficiency in the skilled ratings of the Navy, especially of shipwrights and blacksmiths; whether the inquiries recently conducted by Captain Niblett and Mr. Gifford on behalf of the Admiralty at the naval and other shipbuilding Ports have elucidated the cause of the difficulty; and whether he can state the numbers necessary to make good the complement in the depôts?
§ THE CIVIL LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.The number remaining to be entered by the end of the financial year are:—Shipwrights, 72; blacksmiths, 75.