§ Mr. GRETTONasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will state upon what basis the official estimate was made that 70 per cent. of the total cost of a "Dreadnought" is spent upon labour in the dockyard, in view of the fact that this estimate gives an average wage during two years of upwards of £450 per annum for each of the 1,500 men stated to be employed?
§ Mr. McKENNAI think the hon. Member may have been misled by the answer given to his question on the 19th May. The number of men employed stated to the hon. Member for Shrewsbury to be between 1,000 and 1,500 was, as I stated in my reply of the 19th May, calculated for dockyard construction work only. Seventy per cent. of the total cost of the ship was not spent on labour in the dockyard; this percentage is the roughly estimated proportion of the total cost due to all the labour employed. Assuming 35s. per week as an average wage for workmen of all grades, including those employed in the dockyard and elsewhere, the sum of money spent on building the "Dreadnought" represents the continuous labour during a period of two years of some 7,000 men, of whom the 1,500 referred to in the former reply were dockyard employés. We have no exact information, but I am advised that the above figures may be taken as a reasonable approximation.