§ MR BELLAIRSTo ask the Secretary to the Admiralty what is the ap- 344 proximate age of recruits in the German Navy, such as form one-third of the complements of the eight principal battleships of the German North Sea Fleet; and what preliminary training, in point of time, these men have undergone.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) I understand that the approximate age is twenty to twenty-three. These men receive no preliminary training, and are recruited from the seafaring population, or, in the case of stokers and mechanics, from like trades ashore.