§ MR. W.T. WILSON (Lancashire, Westhoughton)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the wages paid to carpenters and 23 joiners employed in the works department at the Woolwich Arsenal are a ½d. per hour below the standard rate of wages paid by private firms in the district, and that in the other departments a system of piece-work prevails which prevents trade union workmen in this trade accepting employment therein; and whether he will consider this question, with the object of altering the conditions at present obtaining in the Arsenal, so that trade unionist carpenters and joiners may accept employment there without violating the rules of their various societies.
§ (Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) The rates of wages paid to carpenters and joiners in the ordnance factories are, when the benefits accruing from Govern
| Date. | Batteries. | Officers. | Men. | Horses. |
| 1/4/95 | 100, and 6 Depots. | 597 | 17,592 | 10,808 |
| 1/4/05 | 178, and 9 Depots. | 1,141 | 29,778 | 18,908 |