MANNING THE NAVY. (Hansard, 21 February 1853)

The EARL of EGMONT
wished to know whether Her Majesty's Government would have any objection to lay on the table the report of the Committee on the Manning of the Navy?

§ The EARL of ABERDEEN
replied, that it was the intention of the Government to lay the report in question upon the table as soon as possible; but at the same time he begged to observe that it had only been received in the course of last week, and that it embraced a vast number of subjects besides that of Manning the Navy: and that, with respect to many of those subjects at least, it was quite necessary that the Government should have time to consider, and form some opinion upon them, before laying the report on the table. At the same time, he assured the noble Earl that there should be no unnecessary delay.

The DUKE of NORTHUMBERLAND
said, he hoped the Government would also lay on the table the evidence taken by the Committee. They had inquired into the whole state of the sea service, from the time a seaman first entered it, as a boy, until he was at last received into Greenwich Hospital. An injustice was suffered by a very valuable class of officers in the Navy, the warrant officers, who were between the seamen and the commissioned officers. He had hoped that one part of this injustice, which had been done years ago, might have been redressed by the late Government, independently of the report of this Committee. He referred to the taking away of the widows' pensions; but they had found great difficulty in making the requisite calculations. On this account, after the Committee had been very laboriously engaged, he had desired them also to consider the case of the warrant officers. Since the war, other classes of officers, as engineers in steam vessels, had been put over them: and the different kinds of officers complicated the question very much.

§ The EARL of ABERDEEN
said, he had not yet read the evidence, but, while it would be quite proper to lay the report on the table, it might happen, from the variety of opinions prevailing among the officers examined, that it would be inexpedient to lay the evidence on the table also.