§ MR. CHILDERS (Edinburgh, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, with reference to the Memorandum just published, explanatory of the financial proposals of the new programme, whether the House is to understand that, while the plan provides £3,054,000 more than is required for the programme of new construction in the Dockyards, an excess which, in the words of the Memorandum, "can be utilized in reducing the Estimates for 1892–3 and 1893–4," on the other hand it leaves almost the same amount, £2,864,000, to be provided by 1641 Parliament during the two subsequent years 1894–5 and 1895–6, in respect of contract work already fully completed and paid for?
§ * LORD GEORGE HAMILTONMy Memorandum was as follows:—
This sum can either be utilized in laying down new vessels or in reducing the Estimates for 1892–3, 1893–4.That new vessels will in those years be commenced is certain, and the amount available under our scheme for that purpose is sufficient to provide for the maintenance of the Fleet at the strength at which it will then stand. Unless, therefore, in the years 1892 to 1894 it is decided to abolish the Dockyards and to stop all shipbuilding, the supposition in the latter part of the Question is inaccurate.