§ LORD CHARLES BERESFORDTo ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if he will state what further inducements for the encouragement of good gunnery are now given to the men of the Royal Navy; and whether, seeing that the only monetary inducements of this character now offered to gunnery ratings comprise special allowances, ranging from 2d. a day in the case of a seaman gunner to 1s. a day in the case of a captain of a turret, he will consider the advisability of offering greater inducements to the men of the Royal Navy to become skilled heavy gun shots by placing a yearly Return on the lower deck of every ship in His Majesty's Fleet, giving the names of the best heavy gun shots, as is done now in the case of the best rifle shots.
(Answered by Mr. Arnold-Forester.) Full information as to the prizes given for prize firing, and the allowances and other inducements already in existence for the encouragement of good gunnery in the Royal Navy will be found in my replies to the hon. Member for Chester on the 2nd and 18th July respectively, to which I would refer the noble Lord. The suggestion made in the latter part of the Question does not differ materially from that contained in his Question of the 28th July and is open to the objections to which I then alluded. †