33. Mr. T. WILSONasked the Home Secretary if he is aware that some of the men who are acting as temporary alien officers at the Tilbury and London docks are being paid at the rate of from £250 to £300 per annum, with a subsistence allowance of 8s. per day and first class railway fares, while others are being paid at the rate of 10s. per day and have no subsistence allowance or railway fares, and that some of these men are transferred to places a long distance from their homes but receive no extra allowance; and whether he can see his way to make an extra allowance to men sent from their homes, or that only men who are in receipt of the higher rate of pay and allowances be sent to places at a long distance from London?
Mr. SAMUELNo officers of the kind mentioned are allowed first class railway fares, and the differences as to pay and allowances are due to the fact that some of the officers are in the permanent Government service, and have been seconded or lent for the work in question, and their emoluments are those to which they were previously entitled. The lower rate of pay was accepted by the other officers when engaged for the work, and there is no proposal to send any officer to a distant place unless either the terms of his engagement involved employment in such a place or he is willing to go.
Mr. WILSONIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that some of these men have already applied for extra pay when asked to go to Cardiff and other places?