§ LORD CHARLES BERESFORD—To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether the rule governing the award of the Albert Medal, viz., that such 915 award shall be made only on the recommendation of the President of the Board of Trade, still holds good; and whether he can do anything to obtain for the Board of Admiralty the power to recommend directly for the medal, any one serving in the Fleet who may have performed an act of gallantry which they think worthy of this decoration.
(Answer.) The rule governing the a ward of the Albert Medal is not correctly stated by the noble Lord, as he will see by referring to page 799 of the Quarterly Navy List. By Her late Majesty's Warrant of the 12th March 1891, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty are placed in precisely the same position as the President of the Board of Trade as regards the initiation of recommendations for the Albert Medal for saving life at sea, and in both cases the formal recommendation is submitted to the Sovereign through the Home Secretary, as Principal Secretary of State. No change in this mode of procedure is in contemplation.—(Admiralty.)