The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-10 00:00:00

SUPPLY.-REPORT.

The report of supply was brought up, and the various
votes were read at the table.

THE SUPPLY OF RUM IN THE NAVY.
On the vote for the Naval Coast Volunteers,
Mr. F. FRENCH said he wished to ask the right hon.
baronet the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he could
assign any reason why rum should be the only spirit se-
lected for consumption in the navy ? In the year 1841 the
extraordinary preference which was thus given to ono
article of colonial produce had been brought under the no-
tice of the House of Commons ; and the Admiralty autho-
rities had then given the house and the public reason to
understand that they were about to introduce some other
spirits besides rum for the use of British sailors. Since that
time, however, the question had not again been mooted. It,
was certainly a very surprising fact that free-trade Minis-
tries, which had carried the principle of unrestricted com-
petition so far as to accept tenders for supplying the Bri-
tish navy with foreign beef, pork, and bread, had endea-
voured to prop up the colonial monopoly in supplying the
same navy with rum. The parties whose interestshe was
then advocating did not ask the Board. of Admiralty to
s
take British spirits at a higher rate or of a worse quality
than the colonial spirit. On the contrary, they con-
tended that
they would supply a better article
lower price. An application had lately been made tao
the board to the effect that sailors in the royal navy
should have the same privilege extended to them in that
matter which was enjoyed by sailors in the mercantile
navy, and that they should be allowed to use rum, or
other spirits, just as they themselves might
that application had been met by a decided reLf esrl.l • Butan
immediately after it had been made a contract had' 'been
entered into for the supply of 30,000 gallons of rum for the
Royal navy, and there was at present a contract before the
public for the supply of an additional quantity. He had
been informed that the spirit which was supplied to the
Royal navy was what was called " the sweepings" of the
rum in the market, and that it had been sold at the rate
of 2s. ld., while the price of good rum varied from 2s. Bd.
to 3s. But even at the price of 2s. id., he believed that a
better article could be obtained from the manufacturer of
British spirits. It was evident that the public in general
preferred British spirits to rum ; for while the annual
consumption of the former in the United Kingdom
amounted to 24,000,000 of gallons, the annual consumption
e
of the latter amounted to only 4,000,000 of gallons.
wished to know whether the right hon. baronet could offer
any explanation of the course taken by the Admiralty
upon that subject, and also whether he would have any
objection to lay before the house the correspondence
n
had taken place with respect to it bet w thdeengawrhdicohf
Admiralty and the representatives of °the distillers of the
United Kingdom ?
gs' of rum, to which the
Sir J. GRAHAM said he should plead ignorance of the
meaning of the term
hon. gentleman had refersrveeraild'
th.at point. He should further
he could not, therefore,
give any explanation up*
say, that he doubted wehfentthheer that
existencequestion
e f any
yd
dkeens
desire
et
to him in consequence
promote the comfortthaodf theits
esraiigilonrsionf tahedetorye
atloNparovym'ootle.
whether it had no
the interests of the distillers of
only
sof theUeninteedanleiwinegrdtoem
g.ivßeutto,
however that might be,
that was, that it was the opinion
theef bt
heo hon.
Boardgen t lmeefAdmiralty that it would not be conducive ,
to the good of the service, or to the discipline of the men,
that there should be an issue of more than one description
of spirits on board of her Majesty's ships. There was,
therefore, but one kind of spirit distributed on board those
ships, and that distribution was made but once a day, at
12 o'clock, Then came the question of what that spirit