§ 43. Mr. LAMBERTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Shipping Controller whether, having regard to the fact that £6,400,000 has been spent on the national shipyards at Chepstow, Beachley, and Portbury, he will state the total tonnage and the market value of the 241 ships that have been commenced and completed at these yards, leaving out of account the ships being built when the yards were acquired by the Government?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of SHIPPING (Colonel Leslie Wilson)Vessels with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 15,312 tons and a market value of approximately £570,000 were in various stages of construction at the date of the acquisition of the yards at Chepstow by the Government, and subsequently completed. On the 2nd March, 1920, when these yards were taken over by private purchasers, it was estimated that approximately 24,200 tons, having a market value of approximately £710,000, had been worked into the three H Type and the six N Type vessels, of a total tonnage of about 74,000 tons, then under construction. Two of these vessels were in an advanced stage of construction, and one, the "War Glory," of 10,500 tons deadweight, was launched on the 21st April, 1920.
§ Colonel WILSONMy hon. Friend must not understand anything of the sort. That is the capital cost of the whole undertaking.