asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty on how many occasions in the last 12 months or latest convenient period claims for damages at common law arising during the claimants' war service in the Royal Navy have been resisted by the Admiralty on the ground that such claims were out of time and Statute-barred.

Mr. Dugdale:

Admiralty records are not kept in a form which would enable this Question to be answered without a very great amount of work. Claims for damages at common law by present and former members of the Royal Navy in respect of incidents arising during their war service are, however, very infrequent. If the hon. Member has a specific case in mind and will let me have the necessary details, I shall be glad to investigate the matter.

May I ask my hon. Friend whether, in these cases, the principle is adopted of recognising that it is extremely undesirable to invoke the Statute of Limitations in the case of claims made by ex-Service men who served in the last war?

Mr. Dugdale:

I think the main difficulty is the question whether the claim is more than a year old. I agree that there may be cases when a claim more than a year old might be considered, but, in general, there is this rule that a claim must not be more than a year old.

Is my hon. Friend aware that the Admiralty is continually chasing "hostilities only" ratings, who appear to have no redress? Surely, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander?