§ MR. BOWERMAN (Deptford)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if he will state the provision intended to be made for the complements of torpedo destroyers and torpedo boats, so as to obviate the present arrangement whereby, when a flotilla puts to sea, boats in commission in reserve are depleted of the engine-room artificers required to carry out necessary repairs.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The present arrangement is that the complements of nucleus-crew destroyers and torpedo boats, which may from time to time for special reasons be brought up to full numbers, shall be completed from the resources of the port to which they belong without withdrawing ratings from other nucleus-crew vessels. It is the exception and not the rule to complete them from nucleus crews. I am not aware of any intention of altering the complements of torpedo-boat destroyers and torpedo boats.