§ SIR JOHN BENNTo ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the eighteen men employed in the workshops of the Army Ordnance Department, His Majesty's Gun Wharf, Devonport, are not now granted the extra Is. per week which has been given 1826 to the labourers; that these men, before the advance, were in receipt of 22s. 6d. per week, that included 6d. per day allowed them for skilled work; and that the extra Is. which was paid to them for a few weeks has been withdrawn by the deduction of 2d. per day from the 6d. for skilled work, leaving them only 22s. 6d. as before; and whether, seeing that men employed in the dockyard on similar work are receiving from 24s. to 27s. per week, he will favourably consider restoring to these eighteen men the advance in wages recently granted to their comrades.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) As I have already explained to the House on 3rd June, the wages paid to the men doing the work in question remain unchanged, and, on the information now in my possession, I do not consider them inadequate for the work which the men have to perform.