§ 52. Mr. HORE-BELISHAasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will explain the passage in the appropriation account that, whereas at Chatham and Devonport a substantial proportion of the men employed was classed and paid as ordinary labourers, practically all the men at Portsmouth were rated as skilled, and that the proportion of skilled labourers at Portsmouth receiving the higher rates of skilled pay was considerably greater than at the other yards; and whether it can be so arranged that skilled labourers at Devonport and Chatham should be placed on the same scale as at Portsmouth?
§ Lieut.-Colonel HEADLAMI do not think it would be proper for me to explain a passage in the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General which will be shortly considered by the Public Accounts Committee of this House. With regard to the last part of the question, skilled labourers have always been on the same scale of pay at the home dockyards, and the question of the proportion of skilled to unskilled labourers in the Works Department at Portsmouth is under consideration
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHACan the Parliamentary Secretary explain what is meant in the Auditor-General's Report? Why is it that the men at Portsmouth are rated as skilled predominantly when they do the same kind of work?
§ Lieut.-Colonel HEADLAMI think that is a question which really must be settled by the Auditor-General in his Report.