§ MR. HOWELL (Bethnal Green, N.E.)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether it is true that the Government have decided to build a number of additional war ships; whether he will state to the House the number and class of such ships and their estimated cost per ship, and in the aggregate; and, whether the House will have an opportunity of discussing the proposed addition to our Naval Fleet before any portion of the expenditure is incurred?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)If the hon. Gentleman would refer to my past statements, both in the House and outside, he would find that I have always 1230 pointed out that the desire of the Government was to complete as rapidly as they could the programme of shipbuilding adopted in 1885, and that when they had reduced it to manageable proportions they would commence a fresh programme of their own. This we propose to do next year. So far from wishing to take a surreptitious advantage of the House by incurring liabilities or expenditure without its knowledge, we desire to lay before it our programme in its entirety, and with the fullest information relating to each stage, both as regards cost and rate of progress, in the hope that the continuity of a shipbuilding programme, sanctioned under such conditions, would not be affected either by a change of Government or the election of a fresh House of Commons.
§ MR. HOWELLMay I ask the noble Lord whether, in the preparation of the designs of the new ships, care will be taken to insure that the ships will be battleworthy, as well as seaworthy?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONI shall be quite ready to answer that Question when the hon. Gentleman tells me what he means by the word "battleworthy."
§ MR. HOWELLI took the expression used from the Report of the Committee itself. All the witnesses before the Committee, and the Committee itself which passed the Report, drew a distinction between seaworthiness and battleworthiness.
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONI was not aware that the word occurred in the Report. I can only say that, although the Committee pressed several witnesses to give an accurate definition of what was meant by "battleworthiness," not one of them was able to do so.
§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)Is it not a fact that the noble Lord's own Constructor of the Navy, Mr. White, was the first man to use the word?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONNo; my hon. Friend is in error. I think the word was invented by the hon. Member for Cardiff (Sir Edward J. Reed).
§ MR. HOWELLasked, whether, in the Amendment to the Report, which was negatived on the Motion of the noble Lord, the same terms of "seaworthiness" and "battleworthiness" were not used by the hon. Member for Preston (Mr. Hanbury)?
§ [No reply.]