§ MR. BELLAIRS (Lynn Regis)I beg, to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty in reference to his official statement that the annual effective cost to the country 1632 of a fully-trained gunner in the Royal Marine Artillery and of a naval seaman gunner (able seaman) is estimated to he, approximately, £53 in each case, whether he can state the data on which the estimate was made; and whether it allows for the large wastage of about 10 per cent. among seamen.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. MCKENNA,) Monmouthshire, N.The items comprised in the total sum given as representing the annual effective cost to the country of a fully-trained gunner in the Royal Marine Artillery and of a naval seaman gunner (able seaman), were pay and allowances, clothing and victualling. The expense for maintaining one man for one year having been taken on the above basis, such consideration as the wastage among seamen did not enter into the calculations.
§ MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER (Croydon)Is it not the fact that the cost of a marine gunner to the country is a great deal less than that of a seaman gunner?
[No Answer was audible.]
§ MR. BELLAIRSI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether his attention has been drawn to an Answer given by the Secretary to the Admiralty on 4th April, 1906, in which the cost of a gunner in the Royal Marines is given as £55 10s. and the cost of a seaman up to the date of being rated A.B., or before he attains a seaman gunner's rate, as £155 in pay and victualling only; and whether, in view of a recent official statement, he desires to modify this Answer, as the new Estimate shows a decrease in the cost of the seaman of at least £100.
§ MR. MCKENNAThe Answer to the first portion of the hon. Member's Question is in the affirmative. With regard to the second portion, as the figures given by my hon. friend on 4th April, 1906, represented the cost of a marine for a period of eighteen months, namely, from enlistment to date of becoming efficient, and of a bluejacket for a period of four years, namely, from entry as a boy to date of being rated able seaman, it is not necessary to modify them with reference to the recent official statement respecting the annual effective cost of a marine 1633 gunner and seaman gunner when fully trained.