§ MR. GEORGE ROBERTSTo ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether the age limit is equally applicable to officials and men in dockyards when it is found necessary to curtail expenses; if not will he state the reasons why such age limit operates in the case of men and not officials.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) In carrying out the recent discharges, which were the cause and not the consequence of the reduced expenditure on the staffs of the royal dockyards, the age limit was applied equally to officials and men. Both as regards officials and men, extension of time was allowed in individual cases to permit of time for pension or gratuity being completed.