§ MR. BELLAIRSI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether any of the eight battleships absent from the Channel Fleet during the night of the recent Eastern crisis on 9th October were undergoing an extensive refit of over thirty working days.
§ MR. MCKENNASome of the battleships were undergoing a refit which, unless interrupted, would last for more than thirty days. None had been paid off into dockyard hands, without a crew, for extensive refit.
§ MR. BELLAIRSasked why the Memorandum of the Admiralty requiring the replacing of any vessel undergoing extensive refit was not carried out.
§ MR. MCKENNAThese vessels were not undergoing extensive refit.
§ MR. BELLAIRSBut the Admiralty themselves have defined extensive refit as thirty working days.
§ MR. MCKENNAreplied that the crews were still retained on board, and the refit might have been stopped at any moment and the battleships put to sea within twelve hours.
§ MR. BELLAIRSI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty with reference to the official statement that the Channel Fleet had eight out of fourteen battleships absent in the dockyards from the beginning of its cruise on 23rd September to 12th October, except for a period of ten days, when nine were absent, whether eight of the battleships were in the dockyards refitting; and if the Board propose to obviate the reduction of strength thus entailed by increasing the number of battleships with the Channel Fleet to seventeen, as was the case in 1905 and 1906.
§ MR. MCKENNAThe suggestion contained in the earlier part of the hon. Member's Question is not correct, and the Admiralty have no intention of increasing the strength of the Channel Fleet.
§ MR. ASHLEYWere all these eight battleships ready for sea within twelve hours?
§ MR. MCKENNANo, some were undergoing extensive refit.