§ 19. Viscount CURZONasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he can yet make any statement as to whether the Report of the first, Welfare Committee and the Admiralty decisions thereon can be made available to Members of Parliament?
§ Mr. LONGIt is not proposed to depart from the usual Admiralty practice, which is to treat Reports of Admiralty Committees on Service matters as solely for the information of the Board of Admiralty. Full information as to the request put forward through the Welfare Committee, and the Admiralty decisions thereon, will, of course, he promulgated to the fleet. I may add that the Report of the Welfare Committee was presented to the Admiralty on the 3rd of March: and that, as it contains a very large number of requests which require consideration, it will be some time before decisions can be promulgated.
§ Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHYIn view of the great importance of this important departure, would not the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of laying this Report before the House?
§ Mr. LONGI do not know what the hon. and gallant Member means by this new departure—whether he means the Welfare Committee. I presume what he wants is that the Welfare Committee should succeed. I think that their success would be gravely prejudiced by publishing their Report. It would be far better in the interests of the lower deck that these considerations should be regarded as questions put by them in the most friendly way to the Board of Admiralty, and to be considered by them in the same way, but it would be very undesirable to publish them.