§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the First Lord of the Admiralty what is the maximum additional sum that will become chargeable to any future Navy Estimates by reason of the increased scale of salary that it is proposed to pay the Class 1 clerks of the secretariat of the Admiralty; and whether, seeing that the only reason assigned for the increased scale is that the Class 1 clerks of the Board of Trade and the Local Government Board have been placed on the higher scale, he will see his way to withdraw the concession, and so relieve the future Navy Estimates of an entirely unnecessary charge?
§ Mr. McKENNAIt would be impossible to forecast with any exactness what would be the figure asked for by my hon. Friend in the first part of the question, but it is found that on present numbers the increased expense will gradually rise from about £190 in the current financial year to about £850 in 1926–27. The reason assigned by my hon. Friend was the occasion rather than the cause for the change, and was so intended in the answer given by my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary on the 19th April. The reply to the second part of the question is in the negative.