§ MR. ELLIOTT LEES (Birkenhead)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, whether the policy of the Admiralty, in relation to the invitation to tender and the acceptance of tenders for the building of ships and machinery, is under the guidance of Sir John Fisher?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYThe policy of the Admiralty in relation to the invitation to tender and the acceptance of tenders for the building of ships and machinery is distinctly under the guidance of the First 714 Lord and Financial Secretary. Their intervention is not nominal or theoretical, but practical and direct. Any attacks on the system or on the mode in which it is carried out ought to be directed against them, and not against the person of the Controller of the Navy, Sir John Fisher, who, by the rules of the Service and official custom, is prevented from defending himself either by voice or pen. [Cheers.]
§ MR. PENROSE FITZGERALD (Cambridge)I would like to put a supplemental question to the right hon. Gentleman—namely, whether it is true that everything in the matter of contract-built ships, especially our destroyers, is sacrificed, as stated in the Globe yesterday, to cheapness?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYMy answer to my hon. Friend would be this. Just look at the ships which have been delivered by the contractors, and look at their efficiency, and see whether everything has been sacrificed to cheapness. ["Hear, hear!"] This attack on the Board of Admiralty with reference to cheapness reflects an unmerited slur on the splendid work which has been done by other firms who have delivered torpedo-boats perfectly equal in efficiency to those of the firm the rejection of whose subsequent tenders has led to the attacks on the present system. [Cheers.]