Sir HENRY DALZIEL(by Private Notice) asked the Secretary to the Admiralty whether he is aware that discontent exists among the Scottish workmen at Rosyth in respect to the lower wages paid them compared with the English workmen employed; can he explain why the war bonue given to Englishmen is 4s. a week while only 3s. is paid to Scotsmen; and why the English workers are allowed 6d. a day for travelling expenses whilst Scotsmen are allowed nothing?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI hope I may be allowed at once to dismiss any idea that we prefer Southerners to Scottish workmen at Rosyth. In our employment all the world over we have, I am glad to say, a very considerable number of Scotsmen, many of whom have made their way to high rank. We were, of course, bound in the earlier stages of the development of Rosyth Yard to ask for volunteers from our Southern yards, in order that the nucleus of the Rosyth staff should be officers and men well acquainted with dockyard practice and routine. In asking our Southern employés to sever all their Old associations and start anew in Scotland we were bound—and I am sure my right hon. Friend will concur—to offer special conditions as a set-off to inconvenience and interruption. The result is that, although we have secured to our employment a very considerable number of men locally entered, and although those men receive rates and conditions which compare favourably with the private employment of the locality, being only human, they probably look a little jealously at the special consideration which we have felt bound to offer to the transferees from the South. As regards the suggestion that we give a war bonus of 4s. to Englishmen, whereas only 3s. is paid to Scotsmen, the facts are wrongly stated. The 3s. is given to men, whether Englishmen or Scotsmen, who had already been locally entered at a time rate 1s. higher than those to whom the 4s. was given. As my right hon. Friend is fully aware, we are here, as elsewhere, anxious to deal fairly and equitably with men who are serving us loyally; but I cannot admit that the local entrants at Rosyth have a claim to the special concessions we have made to the transferees from the South, some of whom, I do not doubt, are themselves Scotsmen.
Sir H. DALZIELDoes my right hon. Friend think it just and equitable that of hundreds of men who are living in the same town some distance from Rosyth, some of them are allowed travelling expenses and the others are not? Will he kindly give special consideration to that point?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAThe men who came from the South severed all their connections, and the Admiralty were bound to make allowances to them. Men living at a distance from Rosyth, whether local men or transferees, get free railway travelling, but the transferees get 6d. a day to com- 1646 pensate them for the time taken up in travelling, and if the right hon. Gentleman now asks whether that ought not to be given to local men too, I will go into that question again. There is another Department concerned in this besides the Admiralty.
Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTDoes the right hon. Gentleman not realise that the Department have created a situation which will cause discontent at Rosyth, and that they have, in fact, created a discrimination which will not be assented to by the local men?
Sir H. DALZIELI beg to give notice that I will call attention to this matter on the first opportunity.
§ Mr. ADAMSONIs it not a fact that the men from the South get 23s. a week maintenance in addition to the 3s. paid for travelling expenses?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAWhen we ask men to come from their homes in Devonport or Sheerness, and other places, for a period of three months, we give them up to 23s. 4d. a week to keep a second home. That is perfectly justifiable, and that enables him to look round and find a new home. When he has done that the 23s. 4d. stops.
§ Mr. ADAMSONDoes the right hon. Gentleman not think that that distinction, to which I have no objection, is quite sufficient without imposing any other disabilities on the local workman?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI have said it is quite likely that, being only human, the Scotsmen will probably look with a little jealousy on these matters. I will look again into the point about the 6d. allowance for travelling.
§ Mr. WILKIEAre the Scotsmen at Rosyth paid at the rates obtaining for men outside Admiralty employment?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAYes; I have said that the local Scotsmen are being paid at the rates of workmen outside our employment in that locality.