§ Sir B. FALLEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he will make the recent decision that a proportionate extension only will be enforced in the case of His Majesty's ships which commis- 539W sioned for foreign service before the issue of the regulation increasing foreign commissions to three years the subject of a Fleet order, as apparently this decision is not known officially to local naval authorities abroad, who will not apply for reliefs for men who are serving under those conditions?
§ Commander EYRES-MONSELL:The rule that men serving in ships on foreign stations are not to be absent from home for more than three years applies equally to men who were already abroad at the time the order was issued prescribing two-and-a-half years as the minimum period of ships' commissions on foreign stations. The period of absence from home must depend largely on opportunities for passage, but the normal period of actual service on a foreign station is two-and-a-half years and a further supplementary Fleet Order is being issued in order to remove any misapprehension on the point.