§ SIR E. GOURLEY (Sunderland)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, will he state the percentages of the following classes of men and boys in Her Majesty's Navy to the total of 105,232 voted by Parliament for 1898–9, namely, officers, seamen, artificers, stokers, domestics, boys, marines, coastguard, and other services; whether in case of need the Admiralty can, by utilising the Royal Naval Reserves and pensioners, man as many more vessels with British seamen as are now in commission, not alone with seamen, but also with officers; and whether all the men of the seamen and marine classes are trained in gunnery on shore as well as afloat, and has he any systematic reports showing the course of training necessary in order to certify proficiency in gunnery?
THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. G. J. GOSCHBN,) St. George's, Hanover SquareThe honourable Member will find the information he asks for in his first Question in the tables attached to the Naval Estimates. In the second Question the hon. Member asks whether an equal number of ships to those now in commission could be manned and officered. But surely he must know that 855 manning depends not only upon the number of ships to be commissioned, but upon their size and class. Officers and men are systematically trained in gunnery ashore as well as afloat, and reports on the subject are duly made to the Admiralty.