§ MR. BELLAIRS (Lynn Regis)To ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he can now state within £25,000 what is the anticipated under-expenditure which has been caused by strikes and out of which £200,000 is to be spent on the earlier commencement of five cruisers and nine destroyers and £73,500 on extra repairs this financial year; and whether, in order to get the full benefit of this extra work, he will see that its effect is not cancelled by savings on other Votes in order to provide a sum of over a quarter of a million sterling for the purchase of two destroyers which are already built and for the salvage of H.M.S. "Gladiator."
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) The figures asked for cannot yet be given. Every endeavour will be made to get the full benefit from this extra work. I must add that my hon. friend's estimate of a quarter of a million sterling is purely fanciful.