§ SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if he will state whether the withdrawal of the Royal Engineers from Gravesend and the dismantling of the forts there are part of a new policy regarding the defences of the Thames.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe withdrawal of the Royal Engineers is due, as the hon. Member was informed on the 26th instant, to the abolition of submarine mines. † The scheme for the defence of the Thames approved by the Army Council does not entail the maintenance of the forts.