§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether a proposal was recently made to the Treasury to transfer the Class 1 clerks in a certain department of the Admiralty from a salary scale of £150 rising to £500, to one of £200 rising to 854 £600; if so, from what source he proposes to obtain the £700 necessary to give effect to this proposal, seeing that Parliament has been asked to sanction only the amount based on the lower scale of salaries; what additional duties these clerks have been called upon to do since the Navy Estimates were prepared to justify the additional salary; what is the average period of the service of each of the clerks referred to; how many of them are at present in receipt of special allowances, and of what value are those allowances; whether, prior to sanction being given to the increase of the salaries of these clerks, an application was received from the Class 1 clerks of the other departments of the Admiralty to be granted the same increase as their colleagues; whether such application was laid before him; and, if not, by whose authority was any distinction made between the Class 1 clerks in the various departments of the Admiralty?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the ADMIRALTY (Dr. Macnamara)My hon. Friend is not correct in his statement of the facts in this matter, which are as follows: On the application to the Board of Trade and the Local Government Board of the initial scale of £200—£500 for junior Class I. clerks, the Admiralty immediately applied for the restoration in their secretariat of this scale which had existed prior to 1896. The sanction of the Treasury to this request was not obtained in time for its effect to be shown in the printed Estimates for 1911–12, but the financial result as regards the current year will be insignificant in comparison with the figure suggested in the question, and the covering approval of this House will, in the usual way, be sought in the Appropriation Bill. As the decision is a general one, covering the future as well as the present, there is no question of special treatment for the particular gentlemen referred to by ray hon. Friend. The allowances remain as stated in the Navy Estimates. The reply to the fifth part of the question is in the affirmative. The application was laid before the Treasury.