§ 35. Mr. ROSEasked the Secretary of State for Air if his attention has been called to a proposal to build a fleet of airships of 6,750,000 cubic feet capacity for trans-Atlantic mail service; and will he give an assurance that no public money will be spent upon further airship development projects until R 100 and R 101 have carried out their trials and satisfied all specification conditions?
§ Sir S. HOAREThe whole object of the present experimental airship programme is to carry out exhaustive tests of the potentialities of large airships from the point of view of commercial air transport and defence before incurring any further commitments with new vessels. The answer to the second part of the question is, therefore, in the affirmative.
§ 36. Mr. ROSEasked the Secretary of State for Air if the Airship Guarantee Company has been granted any modification of the original contract which restricts their obligations to the sole purpose of building and delivering R 101 at Cardington, or whether the Airship Guarantee Company propose to exercise their agreed option of repurchase for the sum of £150,000?
§ Sir S. HOAREAs regards the first part of the question, there has been no modification of the contract. As regards the second part, whilst there have been certain informal conversations of a quite provisional character on the subject, the company have not as yet put forward a concrete proposal for repurchase.
§ Mr. ROSEMay we take it that any statements made in the Press to the 1027 effect that the Airship Guarantee Company have any other hold or claim upon the vessel except their contract terms are utterly unauthorised?
§ Sir S. HOAREYes, Sir. The contract has been unchanged, and the obligations remain as they were when the contract was signed.
§ Colonel WOODCOCKWill this make any difference to the communication between this country and Canada, which was one of the ideas of the scheme?