§ MR. J. WILLIAMS BENN (Devonport)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty when the proposed new scheme as to working hours in the Royal Dockyards will take effect, and what is the reason for departing from the date of April 2nd, mentioned in the Admiralty order.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The date for commencement of the contemplated new scheme of working hours, which provides for a uniform forty-eight hour week throughout the year, is not yet definitely fixed. April 2nd, the first working day of the present financial year, was a provisional suggestion only. It has been not found practicable to deal with all the details involved in a change of this magnitude in time to admit of the institution of the new scheme on that date, but it is hoped to introduce it early in July.