§ MR. MALLET (Plymouth)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, with a view to securing the earliest practicable financial benefit to the additional men to be employed this winter in the royal dockyards, he will consider the advisability of exempting these men from the ordinary rule whereby a week's wages is kept in hand by the cashier and paid on the termination of the period of employment; and whether special arrangements can be made to pay such men at least 75 per cent. of the wages earned during the first week of their employment.
§ MR. MCKENNAIn making arrangements for the entry of the men in question, full consideration was given to the fact that many of them might be in straightened circumstances. With the object therefore of relieving such distress at the earliest possible moment, special arrangements have been made to waive, in their case, the ordinary dockyard rule requiring a work's wages to be kept in hand, and instructions given that these men were to be paid 75 per cent. of the amount earned during the first week of their employment.