§ 9. Mr. STEWARTasked why the Admiralty have refused to grant the usual gratuity to Edward Samuel Jones, of Newton-by-Frankby, on his retirement through ill-health from the Royal Naval Reserve, seeing that he has completed more than twenty years' actual service in the Reserve, and that there is nothing in the terms of enlistment saying that the twenty years' service must be continuous?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAThe ineligibility of this man is not due to the fact that his service was not continuous, but that, of the total period of over twenty years, five years were served in the second class, which does not count for pension or gratuity unless a man is promoted from that class. Jones did not qualify for such promotion, but was discharged in October, 1895, and when he entered the first class in 1897 it was on the distinct understanding that his previous service in the second class would not be allowed to count towards the necessary twenty years to entitle him to a deferred pension certificate or gratuity. His total service in the first class amounted to fifteen and three-quarter years only, and the regulations do not provide for the grant of proportionate pension or gratuity.
§ Mr. STEWARTIs there no means of giving a man something in proportion to the length of his service?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI am sorry to give my hon. Friend an unfavourable answer. I know the care he has taken in this case.