§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether it has been brought to his notice that when the wages of the labourers at Woolwich Arsenal and Pimlico Clothing Factory were raised last year from. 19s. 6d. to 21s. the wages of those employed at the Enfield Small Arms Factory and Waltham Abbey Powder Mills were not raised, because house rents and the general cost of living being lower at the last-mentioned places no increase of wages was called for; whether he can state upon what grounds the wages were raised at Woolwich Dockyard by the Admiralty to a minimum of 21s., while allowed to remain at Deptford Victualling Yard at 20s., although house rent and the cost of living is, if anything, higher at Deptford than at Woolwich, and that, according to the Admiralty regulations, the workers at Deptford are compelled to live within two miles of the yard; and whether he will take steps to remedy this grievance?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYI am aware of the facts mentioned in the first paragraph of the Question. In answer to the second and third 299 paragraphs I must refer the honourable Member to the answer given by me to similar Questions on the 16th June last, and to my statement in the discussion on the Naval Estimates on Friday last, to which I have nothing to add.