§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty what explanation, if any, have the naval authorities to give of the announcement which in last autumn wag displayed in every post office in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, to the effect that youths between seventeen and eighteen years may now join the Royal Navy without their parents' consent, and that the age of boys was now raised from fifteen and a half to fifteen and three-quarter years, and which was signed by Lieutenant W. E. Abrams, R.N., the recruiting officer, Oxford; by whose authority was the Royal Cipher printed on this notice; and why in an official document of the Admiralty were boys instructed that they could enlist in the Royal Navy without their parent's consent.
§ MR. ARTHUR LEEThe notice alluded to in the hon. Member's Question was only issued locally, and directly the attention of the Board of Admiralty was called to it they informed the officer responsible that it was an improper notice to issue, and ordered its withdrawal.