§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty what precedent, if any, is there, before the year 1900, for the utilisation of a ship of the Royal Navy by a Minister of the Crown unconnected with the Admiralty, for a voyage for health or pleasure; whether there is any instance, and, if so, what instance, before 1900, of the employment of a ship of the Royal Navy to convey a Minister of the Crown unconnected with the Admiralty on a voyage, except in the cases of Ministers of the Crown who were going on Missions to Foreign Powers in the capacity of Ambassadors, Envoys, or Plenipotentiaries.
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. ARNOLD-FORSTER,) Belfast, W.I do not know whether or to what extent Ministers have been conveyed on ships of the Royal Navy on voyages 924 undertaken solely for the purpose of health or pleasure. It is quite possible that Ministers have been so conveyed on the invitation of the captain, and there is nothing in the King's Regulations to prevent such a proceeding. Ships of the Royal Navy have been used prior to 1900 for the conveyance of Ministers of the Crown unconnected with the Admiralty, and I may mention the case of the Duke of Buckingham, who visited Heligoland in 1867, and of Colonel Stanley when visiting Cyprus and Egypt in 1878. There are doubtless other precedents, but as I have said on a previous occasion, the practice, as far as the Admiralty is concerned, is regulated not by precedent, but by the circumstances of each case. The Ministers above referred to were not going on missions to foreign countries or acting in any of the capacities referred to in the hon. Member's Question.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLWas it on the invitation of the captain of the "Canopus" that the Secretary for War travelled by that vessel? I shall call attention to this perversion of the ships of the Navy on the Estimates.