§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If he will inform the House of the course he has taken with regard to seamen who have incurred sentences of penal servitude for breaches of naval discipline, and also to prevent association with criminals in civil gaols of sailors sent there for breaches of discipline?
§ THE EARL OF NORTHBROOK, in reply, said, that arrangements had been made by the Board of Admiralty with the Home Secretary that sailors who had been sentenced to penal servitude for breaches of discipline should, on release, be released absolutely as the supervision necessary in ordinary cases was not required in the case of naval prisoners. He entirely agreed with the noble Lord that it was most undesirable that sailors who had been convicted of offences against discipline should be mixed up with ordinary criminals, and he was able to state that the Home Office had offered to hand over to the Admiralty a portion of the gaol accommodation, and naval prisoners would, therefore, be imprisoned separately. He was happy to say that there had been a marked diminution of late in the number of cases of sailors striking their officers, and, in consequence of this, there would be less penal servitude.