§ 2. Sir CLEMENT KINLOCH-COOKEasked whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that in some cases labourers with six months' service at Bull Point are receiving more money than labourers with ten years' service; and whether he can give any reason for this inequality?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the ADMIRALTY (Dr. Macnamara)It may be as the hon. Gentleman states. If so, it is in consequence of the allowance to labourers for work which is regarded as superior to fetching and carrying, and also the allowance when men are employed on lyddite shell owing to the disagreeable nature of the work.
§ 3. Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKEasked whether the right hon. Gentleman will explain why danger money is not given to the men employed in the Naval Ordnance Department at Bull Point; whether he is aware that these men handle lyddite, cordite, and other explosives; and will he say if this is work entitling men so employed to receive danger money?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAMen below the grade of storehouseman working in the laboratory and handling explosives are rated and paid as skilled labourers. They handle loose cordite but not lyddite, the 426 latter being contained in filled shells. Men employed on the examination of lyddite shell or otherwise handling picric acid are at present paid an allowance of 5d a day, not as danger money, but on account of the disagreeable nature of the work. Danger money is not paid to any men employed in Naval Ordnance establishments, nor can I give any undertaking to alter the existing practice.