§ Sir T. BRAMSDONasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty if, in view of the failure of the Admiralty system recently operated at Portsmouth in connection with the election of the representatives for the Naval Welfare Committee, he will investigate the reasons why only 461 ratings out of a possible number of 11,099 attended the election meetings to elect 59 representatives; will he definitely request the Welfare Committee to report their views and any suggestions that would aid the authorities to, formulate a workable system more suitable to the requirements of the men of the Royal Navy; and, if not, why?
§ Mr. AMMONWith regard to the first and third parts of the question, I cannot accept the suggestion that there is anything wrong with the system of elections. Reasonable opportunities were afforded for attending the elections, and it is known that the reasons why such a large percentage of men did not avail themselves of these opportunities were in some922W cases the reverse of unsatisfactory. The answer to the second part of the question is in the negative, but the Admiralty will, as on previous occasions, review the procedure carefully after the conclusion of the meetings.