§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether it is the fact that the Island of Ascension is to be given up both as a Naval and a Health. Station, and the stores to be divided between Simonstown and Sierra Leone; when such arrangement is to be carried into effect; what measures the Government propose to adopt to prevent the Island, when thus abandoned, from falling into the hands of a Foreign Power; and, whether he will give the House an opportunity of considering the policy of such abandonment before it is carried out?
§ THE FIRST LORD Of THE ADMIRALTY (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)(who replied) said: Ascension is to be abandoned as a Naval Station and Sanitarium, and this arrangement will be carried out as soon as the Naval Authorities at the Cape decide the Stations to which the stores are to be transferred. The Island will still remain a British Possession. The present course of action has been 43 strongly advocated by the Colonial Defence Committee, a Royal Commission, and many naval officers. If the hon. Gentleman objects to the abandonment of this Island he has the opportunities available to private Members of publicly protesting against it.