§ COLONEL SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty if his recent inspection of the harbour and dock works at Gibraltar satisfied him that they will be completed and ready for use within the period originally contemplated, namely, 1899–1900?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYThe harbour works, as far as the inclosure and defence are concerned, will be practically completed within the period originally contemplated—namely, 1899–1900—as far as can be foreseen, but the final completion of portions of the upper structures may require some additional time. In the Naval Works Act, 1895, a provision of £361,000 was made for one dock (or docks), and that dock was to be completed in 1899–1900; but in the Act of 1896 it was decided to extend the dockyard and to construct three docks at an estimated cost of £2,674,000, in place of one dock. If the date in the schedule was not changed, it was by inadvertence. No such works could have been completed in that time. Under the new scheme the three docks will occupy the site of the New Mole Parade and the whole of the site of the present dockyard, which will remain until the new dockyard, now in progress, is sufficiently advanced to allow the existing establishment to be transferred. The date for the completion of the docks cannot be given until the works are more advanced, but it will be entered in the next Naval Works Bill.
§ MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER (Belfast, W.)Is it contemplated to place a floating dock at Gibraltar pending the completion of the docks?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYNo, Sir.