§ MR. ALLHUSEN (Salisbury)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, having regard to the effect of the prolonged stoppage of work in the South Wales coal district, which by depriving the fleet of a sufficiency of good steam-coal seriously impairs its efficiency, he will consider the desirability of purchasing for the Admiralty a colliery or collieries in that district, with an output adequate to the probable needs of the Navy in peace or war; and, by making arrangements with the workmen similar to those existing in the Royal Dockyards, obviate all chance of a strike, and at the same time save the nation the owners' and middlemen's profits?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. MACARTNEY,) Antrim, S.There is nothing in the conditions of the present temporary disturbance in the coal trade, serious as it is, to justify the Admiralty in entering into an undertaking of the character indicated in my honourable Friend's Question.