§ Major ARCHER-SHEEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that, whereas the total number of able seamen defined as such in the official statistics is 21,951 only, 5,579 of these are aliens; and whether he can say what would be the number of British able seamen left in the merchant service in case of a war when the British able seamen belonging to the Royal Naval Reserve would be called out for naval service?
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Mr. BUXTONThe figures quoted by the hon. Member which appear to be taken from the Census of seamen return for April, 1911, include only the number of seamen rated as A.B., employed on the given day (3rd April, 1911), for which the Census was taken. These figures do not show the number of such seamen available and normally following the sea service. As the total number of Royal Naval Reserve men employed in the seamen ratings in British foreign-going ships is only about 1,500, the depletion of the merchant service as regards A.B.'s. would not be considerable in the circumstances assumed in the question.