§ MAJOR SEELY (Isle of Wight)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he can state what was the total output of gold from the Transvaal mines, also the number of white and black persons respectively employed in those mines, for the month of March in this year, and in the years 1898, 1899, 1902, and 1903.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) The following are the figures I am able to give:—
§ under eighteen years of age, in the Royal Navy are liable to the punishment of flogging; and, if so, will he state under what provisions, statutory or otherwise, and for what offences, are floggings inflicted; are these floggings inflicted in public or in the presence of soldiers and sailors on board ship; what is the maximum number of lashes, and with what instrument are the lashes inflicted; what answer has been given by the Admiralty to the letter of the secretary of the Humanitarian Society requesting that permission be given to take photographs of the infliction of punishment by flogging in the Royal Navy; and what steps, if any, will be taken for the immediate abolition of this method of punishment.
§ * THE CIVIL LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. ARTHUR LEE,) Hampshire, FarehamBoys under eighteen are not subjected to the punishment of flogging, but, under the statutory powers given by the Naval Discipline Act, boys under eighteen may be punished by birching, or caning, as prescribed in Article 759 of the King's 1041 Regulations, which further prescribes in whose presence the punishment is to be inflicted, also the maximum number of strokes, and the instrument to be used. The offences rendering boys liable to this form of punishment are to be found in Article 723 of the King's Regulations. No reply beyond an acknowledgment was made to the letter of the secretary of the Humanitarian Society, the request made by him being regarded as an improper one. It is not proposed to take any steps for the abolition of this method of punishment.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI shall call attention to this practice on the Vote for the Admiralty.