§ MR. BRAMSDON (Portsmouth)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether he is aware that, at the beginning of the building of the "Dreadnought" in Portsmouth Dockyard, men were taken from the different shops and sent to work that ship; that some were put on the ordinary labourer's work known as under the boatswain, whilst others were sent as 1547 riveters, drillers, caulkers, and chippers; and, seeing that, after the "Dreadnought" was finished, the men from the blacksmiths' shops and hosemakers' and plumbers' shops went back to their respective foremen, will he explain why the ship fitters' assistants under the chief constructor were not similarly treated, but are still distributed about the yard.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The facts are not exactly as stated, as the men still detached from shops include some taken from other than fitters' shops, the requirements of the service not having permitted of the return of all the men to their previous duties. Their case will be considered when the condition of the work permits.