§
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £3,050, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1930, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Fishery Board for Scotland, including Expenses of Marine Superintendence, and Grant-in-Aid of Piers or Quays, also for Loans to Herring Fishermen.
§ 4.0 p.m.
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for SCOTLAND (Mr. William Adamson)When I visited the harbours used by the herring fishery industry in Scotland some six months ago, I had placed before me many difficulties that that industry was then under. The main difficulties to which my attention was drawn was the amount of debt that rested upon many harbours, the fact that many of them were silting up and were badly in need of dredging, the fact that these fishing communities could not undertake the cost of the dredging that was necessary, and the fact that many of the harbours, because of War conditions and conditions that followed the War, were in need of a considerable amount of re-conditioning and repairs if the industry was to have the necessary facilities for making the most of its opportunities.
In the course of the Debate which was initiated on 20th November last by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Sir R. Hamilton), I outlined certain proposals that had been under consideration—proposals which the Government had in view for assisting the herring fishing industry in Scotland in the difficult times through which it is passing. The proposals which I then outlined, and which seemed to be generally welcomed by hon. Members, included the provision of an additional dredger, and the pro- 686 vision of funds to enable free dredging services to be given wherever necessary. Of course, those harbour authorities who were able to pay for the use of the dredgers, either in full or in part, were expected to pay for them, but those who were unable to pay were to have dredging services free. The proposals also included assistance for works of re-conditioning and special repairs at fishery harbours, and the restoration of the Grant-in-aid of piers and quays to the full. As hon. Members representing fishing constituencies know, this Grant-in-aid for some years past had been reduced to £100, and it was restored to the original figure of £3,000, the annual amount allowed by the Fisheries Act, 1824.
In order that there should be as little delay as possible in making arrangements for carrying out the dredging and re-conditioning works, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer agreed that Parliament should be asked to pass this Supplementary Estimate authorising these services. As regards the services I have already named, taking dredging first, the Fishery Board have already, with my approval, arranged for the purchase of a suitable vessel, and it is now in process of being refitted, and will be ready for service, I hope, in the course of a month or so. The cost of purchase and refitting; is estimated at £10,600, the figure shown, in the Estimate. This grab dredger wilt be very useful for work for which the existing bucket dredger is unsuitable, and I feel that the Committee will approve of what has been done in this direction.
I come to the question of the £20,000 grant which I intimated on 20th November would be used for dredging and reconditioning services rather than for its original purpose of reducing harbour dues. I think when I made that explanation it was generally approved, particularly by those representing the industry itself. The annual cost of maintaining and working the two dredgers, which is the first charge on that sum of; £20,000, is estimated at £7,500. In the current year a sum of £700 is being provided to meet the cost of the dredging service in supplement of the provision on the main Vote for 1929. The sum of £2,300 shown in the Estimate for reconditioning was the most that the Board could see any likelihood of spending before 31st March. It was impossible that a programme could be formulated 687 and works carried through to any great extent before that date. This does not mean that the harbours will lose the balance of the £20,000, which might have been available in the current year since the Chancellor of the Exchequer was good enough to agree that what the Board could not see their way to doing before 31st March could be done during the next financial year. Therefore, in the special circumstances the House will be asked to vote to the Board in the main Estimate for the coming year an amount which, with the provision I am now asking, will make a total of £40,000 for the two years.
Already the Fishery Board are considering proposals for the application of considerable sums of money towards special reconditioning work at a number of harbours. Approval has already been given for grants-in-aid of works at Fraserburgh, Macduff, Girvan, and Lochboisdale, aggregating £17,500. Some of the proposals for assistance under this head are associated with improvement schemes which are being dealt with by the Development Commissioners from the Development Fund, which are outside the scope of the present Estimate. From this point of view it is a convenience—and this is the last thing I need say on this question—that the money for dredging and reconditioning services should come from the same source—namely, the Development Commissioners, but I must make it clear that this £20,000 is independent of and additional to the special fund of £500,000 which is to be placed at the disposal of the Commissioners for development purposes. I now come to grants-in-aid of piers and quays. As I have already stated, this sum is to be raised from £100, a figure at which it has stood for some time, to £3,000. There is not much for me to add. Although grants for piers and quays, which amount at the present time to £17,000, are subject to certain restrictions they have been found to serve a useful purpose in assisting fishery harbours and quays and the restoration of this annual grant-in-aid should be of considerable value. Then there is a small sum provided for in the Estimate to cover the cost for the current year of the additional staff which it has been found necessary to appoint in order to cope with the great increase of work which has 688 fallen on the Board in connection with harbour schemes and other fishery matters, which are at the present time engaging the attention of the Government.
The other matter for which the Estimate makes provision is the Loans Scheme. As my Scottish colleagues are aware it was instituted on behalf of those fishermen who lost their nets and gear in the great storm off the East Anglian coast on the 11th November last. Let me recall the circumstances. As soon as the news of the losses suffered reached me I got into touch with the Lord Provosts of the Cities in Scotland and they responded with enthusiasm to the suggestion that a relief fund should be organised. I should be out of order if I dealt with that aspect of the matter in detail, but it became apparent at a very early date that the amount which could be raised by the generosity of the public would not of itself be sufficient to enable all those fishermen who suffered losses to replace their nets and gear. Again the Chancellor of the Exchequer was ready, in the special circumstances of the case, to help me, and he agreed to a proposal to supplement the relief fund by a loans scheme on easy terms, and to make a total provision of £50,000 for this purpose. It will be impossible for the Fishery Board to make payments by way of loans before the end of the present financial year, but in order that they may have authority to do so between the 31st March and the date when the 1930 Estimate is approved, it is necessary to obtain the authority of Parliament to the service, and, accordingly, the Supplementary Estimate provides for a token Vote of £10. The whole sum of £50,000 will appear in the Board's Estimate for the coming year. I hope that the assistance which is being offered to those who suffered losses in the exceptional disaster which occurred on Armistice Day will meet the situation.
I want to go over some of the work we have been able to do with a view of helping the herring fishing industry to overcome its difficulties, and I propose to deal with the assistance which we have been able to give for schemes of repair and renewal to the fishing harbours, to which I have already referred. Already, in answer to applications which have been put forward we have been able to agree to a development scheme for the follow- 689 ing harbours and for the following amounts. At Fraserburgh the repairs are to cost £3,410, and the Development Fund has made a grant of £3,410. The reconstruction of the quay wall at Fraserburgh will cost £9,000, and the Development Fund has approved a grant of £9,000. The deepening of the harbour entrance is to cost £9,600, and a grant of £9,600 has been made. The extension of the slipway is to cost £2,380 and the Development Fund has made a grant of £2,380. At Whitehills, the improvements are to cost £12,500, and the Development Fund has made a grant of £6,750. At Banff the repairs will cost £1,250, and a grant of £800 has been made. At Anstruther the improvements are to cost £16,000, and the Commissioners have made a grant of £10,500. At Whitehall, Orkney, the improvements are estimated to cost £45,000, and the Development Commissioners have agreed to make a grant of £15,000. At Port Seton the improvements and repairs will cost £5,660, and a grant has been made of £3,000. The protection of the slipway at Macduff will cost £4,000, and the Board have agreed to a grant of £4,000. At Girvan the repairs to the harbour will cost £3,540, and the Commissioners have agreed to a grant of £3,540.
In addition to these schemes which have been agreed to a large number of applications for schemes of repair and improvement are under consideration, and include the following places—Peterhead, Buckie, St. Monance, Pittenweem, Boddam, Cairnbulg, Fraserburgh, Macduff, Portknockie, Findochty, Wick and Girvan. The total cost involved in these schemes is no less than £275,000. I must mention the question of remission of debt, which amounts to £126,000. I hope I have explained sufficiently clearly the total amount of assistance granted to these services, but it can be summarised in a few words. Under the head of harbour grants and loans approved, the total amount is £67,980; dredger services, £11,300, loans to fishermen, £50,000, and remission of harbour debts £126,000, making a total of £255,280. In addition, as a result of the efforts made during the last few months by the Lord Provosts, a fund amounting to £26,250 was raised, and in addition the cost of the schemes under consideration amounts to £275,000.
When I visited these harbours six months ago I had many difficulties put 690 before me and many suggestions made for overcoming those difficulties. I was asked to pledge the Government that a certain number of the suggestions would be carried out. Obviously I could not pledge the Government, but when I discussed the difficulties with representatives of the industry I readily agreed to put their suggestions before my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I think the Committee will agree that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been very generous to the fishing industry. I see one of my hon. Friends opposite shaking his head. I am quite willing to compare what has been done for the fishing industry by the present Government in the course of the last few months, with what has been done by any previous Government within any period of nine months. I should have no difficulty, I think, in proving that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has enabled me to make very generous provision for the herring fishing industry. That by no means relieves the industry of all its difficulties, and by no means entirely relieves me or whoever may stand here in my place of the responsibility for doing all that is yet possible to assist the very worthy body of men in this important industry to make the best of that industry. I am by no means ashamed of what I have been able to do up to now, and I shall continue my efforts in future to enable the industry to overcome its difficulties and to give the fishermen every facility for pursuing their avocation successfully.
§ Major MCKENZIE WOODI have listened with great interest to the right hon. Gentleman's statement. Those of us who are interested in the harbours in Scotland will be glad of the opportunity of discussing a question which is of great importance and which we do not get many opportunities of discussing. The Secretary of State took some credit to himself for what he has done. Let me say, by way of preface, that nothing that we shall say will be directed against the right hon. Gentleman personally. There is no doubt that he has taken a very great personal interest in this matter, and has succeeded in doing something which will compare very favourably with what has been done by any of his predecessors. I would remind him, however, not to stress too strongly a point which he has made on previous occasions regarding 691 what he has done compared with the achievements of previous Governments. I hope he will not forget that most of the money which he takes credit to himself for handing over to these authorities has been provided out of a fund which was set up some years ago, principally at the behest and as a result of the work of the Leader of the Liberal party. The money has all come from the Development Fund.
That is not the only thing to which we would lay claim. There is no doubt that all the harbours both in Scotland and England have to thank the Development Fund more than anything else for assistance, and that they would not be in the position that they are in to-day but for the setting up of that fund. We are indebted to the right hon. Gentleman for going up to Scotland and himself seeing the position of these harbours. He has told us that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been very generous. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has certainly given something, but I am certain that if the Chancellor would do what the Secretary of State has done, that is, go and see these harbours for himself, he would be prepared to give much more liberally than he has done so far. Indeed, the question of the debts upon these harbours and of their further development is a very much larger question than the present Government have yet realised, and they must understand that these sums of which the right hon. Gentleman has talked with so much satisfaction are not nearly enough. It is a great mistake for the Government to hand out money by hundreds of thousands, and even by millions, for the re-conditioning of roads or the making of new roads, and yet forget that harbours are in practically the same position of need and are entitled, even more than the roads, to assistance in the development of the country.
With regard to the question of harbours and debts, the right hon. Gentleman urged the harbour authorities to put forward schemes for re-conditioning and improvement. They did so very hurriedly, and imagined that their claims and applications would be dealt with in time to enable these harbour works to be started by now. This is the time of the year when unemployment is greatest in these towns. But very few of the ap- 692 placations have been dealt with. The right hon. Gentleman mentioned one or two to-day. He has mentioned those same harbours on several occasions. They have become a sort of stage army which crosses the Floor of this House every few weeks, led by the right hon. Gentleman, in proof of what he has done. We would like him to get some new works, not the old ones. I hope that he will expedite the handling of these applications so that the work at the harbours may continue. I am glad that at long last he has told us about Macduff. There was a case in which he took great risks by allowing the application to remain undealt with for so long. At any time the works might have been driven into the sea. We are very lucky to have escaped so long.
I would like to say a few words about the new dredger which the right hon. Gentleman is providing. Everyone, I am sure, realises that this new dredger will be of great assistance to the harbours, which have all been calling for something of the kind. How is the dredger to be let out? The right hon. Gentleman knows that all the harbours, in the north of Scotland particularly, are very eager to get the services of this new dredger, and that there will be applications for it from all over the country How is the right hon. Gentleman going to decide the order of precedence in those applications? He said that some of the harbours were to be asked to pay for the services of the dredger and that others that were in a bad pecuniary state were to get it free of charge. Are the needy ones to get it first, or the others? Is this dredger to be handed over to one harbour and to work there for a month or two while all the others wait? Is a job to be finished at one harbour before the dredger is taken to another? I can quite imagine that there will be very difficult questions of priority to be decided.
In his speech the right bon. Gentleman mentioned that the special grant to the Fishery Board had been raised from £100 to the old figure of £3,000. Every harbour authority will be very grateful to him for that. But I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will impress upon his colleagues that the £3,000 is not nearly enough for the work which has to be done, and that in the near future it will have to be materially increased. 693 There is a special reference to small harbours in this Vote. I do not know exactly what constitutes a small harbour, but I know instances of very small harbours which are in a very difficult position, and I invite the Government's attention to the specially hard cases of some of them. I have, for instance, in my constituency, a small harbour the fishermen of which had £650 of hard cash in the bank to be expended on improvements. But they cannot use it because there is no corporate body which owns the harbour.
It is a very small community and the men are not in a position, without assistance, to form themselves into a corporate body to manage the harbour; they are not a burgh or anything of that kind. The county council has not the power to take over and administer the harbour. It has been suggested by the Fishery Board that a certain kind of co-operative society should be formed to manage it. What I suggest is that the Fishery Board might be encouraged and empowered to take the initiative in putting these harbours on a proper footing, so that there will be someone able to deal with them, and able to use the £650 in this particular case for the purpose for which it was collected.
I come now to the question which, to me, is the most important one raised by this Estimate and that is the question of the relief fund. [HON. MEMBERS: "Loan!"] I refer to the relief fund, both loan and grant. It is of interest to me because in the great storm to which the Secretary of State referred, more than half the total damage was sustained by constituents of mine. I would remind the right hon. Gentleman that that storm simply increased a problem which existed before, and to which attention had already been drawn particularly by us on these benches. I was a member of the committee which was set up some time ago, under the chairmanship of my hon. Friend the Member for East Fife (Mr. Duncan Millar) to look into many of these questions and we pointed out, in our report, that the position of the herring fishing industry made it absolutely necessary that something should be done by way of providing credits for these herring fishermen to help them to get the gear necessary for their work.
694 To understand the position of these fishermen it is necessary to realise the method of organisation under which they work. Some hon. Members of the Committee may not be aware that the earnings of these herring drifters are divided under a scheme by which one-third goes to the crew, one-third to the owners of the nets, and one-third to the owner or owners of the boat. Any fisherman who merely gives his work as a member of the crew, and has no interest in the nets or the boat, gets a very poor share in lean seasons, and, since the War, the seasons have been very lean indeed. In other times, young men entering the industry have usually started as deck hands without any interest in the nets or the boats and have worked themselves up in the industry until they got a share in the nets or the boats. As a result of bad times there has been a gap and it has become difficult for men who have entered the industry without capital, to graduate, if I may put it in that way, to the position of having a share in the nets or the boats.
The herring fishing industry differs from the trawler fishing industry in that it is really a co-operative concern. In the main the boats are owned by the fishermen themselves and our fear is that, if something is not done, the herring fishing industry will become a capitalist industry in the same sense as the trawling industry. Since the War many of the fishermen who have had bad times have lost their nets and are now in the position of deck hands. Some people say, and there appears to be some reason for it, that the proportion of the earnings given to the owners of nets is too large. It seems so on the face of it, but there are considerations which have to be taken into account—
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI am trying to find what bearing the hon. and gallant Member's remarks have on the question of compensation.
§ Major WOODThis matter has a very direct bearing indeed on the question of compensation as I hope to show, and it is impossible for me to make my point clear without explaining these points. I was about to explain that there is a risk of losing nets and, as a result of that risk, the very large proportion of one third of the earnings is allowed to 695 the owners of nets. Even allowing for that consideration I feel that the share is very large, and it is highly desirable, if men are to get their proper share of the earnings of the boat, that they should have, within their power, the possibility of owning some of the nets. That is the connection between my remarks and the subject of this Vote. The Vote only provides for those men who lost their nets on one particular night. There are many people in the fishing industry in Scotland who are in a much worse position than the men who lost their nets that night. We raised this matter before the disaster in November and asked that something should be done for these men.
This Vote provides assistance for men who have been lucky enough, if I may put it in that way, to lose their nets on one particular night, but it leaves out all the others. It provides nothing for them although they are really in a worse position than those who lost their nets on 11th November. Those who lost their nets on 11th November were the aristocracy of the herring fishing industry. The fact that they were able to go to East Anglia with nets means that they were the best-off men. Therefore the right hon. Gentleman presents an Estimate to give assistance to the best-off people in the industry but, as far as we know, he proposes that nothing at all should be done for the others—at the moment at any rate. I fear that if he helps only the best-off men in the industry it will be more than ever difficult in the future to help those others who lost their nets before the 11th November, or even since that date, and also those young men who, as the result of had seasons since the War, have little hope of getting properly launched in the industry. If they have not the possibility of taking a real part in the industry, I am afraid they will drift away from it altogether. Once they go it will be difficult to get them back, and, if we once let down this industry, it will be difficult to put it on its feet again.
§ Mr. SKELTONMay I ask the hon. and gallant Member what has actually happened to those unfortunate constituents whom he has mentioned since 11th November, because none of this money has been given to them?
§ Major WOODI do not wish to go very much into that matter. I have said that this is a time at which unemployment is greatest in these parts of the country. In the last few months there has been, as there always is at this time, a certain lull in the industry and the men are not doing very much. Some of them attempt cod net fishing, if the foreign trawlers allow them, and some of them go to the west coast. They have been there and have come home without much to show for their work.
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for SCOTLAND (Mr. Johnston)On a point of Order. For the sake of clarity in this discussion, I should be glad to know whether we shall be allowed to discuss, later on, the special committee dealing with credit facilities which is at present sitting. If we are to be debarred from mentioning that matter later on, would it not be advisable that the hon. and gallant Member should confine his observations strictly to matters within the Supplementary Estimate.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYThe Secretary of State for Scotland in his opening remarks covered a very much wider field than that which is covered by the Estimate, and it is desirable, in the interests of the Committee and in the interests of the fishing industry, that a certain amount of latitude should be allowed.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONOf course, if it is the desire of the Committee and the ruling of the Chair that the discussion should be so extended, neither my right hon. Friend nor I will offer the slightest objection, but the matter should be made perfectly clear at the outset. I only desire to be assured that the discussion will not be cramped at a later stage and that it is not broadening out now so as to include matters with which later on it may not be possible to deal.
§ Mr. McKINLAYThe Secretary of State was specific on the question of relief and confined it to those who suffered as a result of the storm on Armistice Day. If a discussion as wide as the Atlantic is to be permitted on the whole question of reimbursing men for nets which have been lost on all sorts of occasions, then we are in for a very long Debate. [HON. MEMBERS: "Why not!"] My point is that the Secretary of State was specific in his statement that this 697 sum was in relation to the storm in November, and I suggest that it is outside the Supplementary Estimate to discuss the whole question.
§ Sir PATRICK FORDI respectfully submit that as considerable latitude was given, no doubt very properly, to the Secretary of State as the spokesman of the Government, it is only right and fair that similar latitude should be given to the spokesmen of both sections of His Majesty's Opposition.
§ Mr. ADAMSONIn the course of my remarks I did not mention a word about credit facilities, nor did I go into any details about the Lord Provost's Fund. I confined myself to the matters in the Estimate.
§ 5.0 p.m.
§ Mr. ERNEST BROWNWhen the right hon. Gentleman was dealing with piers and harbours he gave us a long list of schemes under consideration which had no relevance whatever to this Estimate. Surely it is rather treating the Committee unfairly for the Under-Secretary, now that another topic is raised, to prevent us going a little wider in order to bring the whole thing into the picture.
§ Major ELLIOTMay I point out that this Estimate itself, under Subhead E.E., "Loans to Herring Fishermen," says:
The object of the token provision in this Estimate is to secure the approval of Parliament for the service.That refers to the token Vote of £10, and I submit that it would be in order for any of my hon. Friends to move to reduce the Vote on the ground, not that they did not desire this service, but that they wished to show that this service should not be granted, but that another should be granted in its stead. I suggest it would be possible to propose that a service allowing loans only to those who lost their nets on one particular night should be replaced by a service allowing loans to those who lost their nets on other nights as well.
§ Mr. JAMES BROWNFurther to that point of Order. I would like to have a ruling now, so that we shall know where we are, as to whether the discussion is to be confined to one specific matter. I do not go so far as the hon. and gallant Member for Banff (Major Wood) and say 698 that these fishermen who lost their nets on the 11th November were lucky, but I want anyone who has lost their gear on any night, through storm or misadventure of any kind, to be considered.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANIt is always difficult to pull up a Minister, but I must confess that I saw that he was asking for trouble. The right hon. Gentleman did go far outside the Supplementary Estimate on the question of harbours, but not on the question of compensation to fishermen who have lost their gear and nets. I was, therefore, anxious to find out what the bearing of the arguments of the hon. and gallant Member for Banff (Major Wood) was. We cannot go outside the terms of this Estimate, but the Minister having made certain statements about harbours, I think I must allow some latitude. I want to be fair to the Committee, and without developing their arguments, I think it would be proper to ask why compensation should not be given to other fishermen than those specified.
§ Mr. W. ADAMSONFurther to that point of Order. May I remind hon. Members who have complained—
§ Mr. BOOTHBYWe are not complaining.
§ Mr. SKELTONIt was your own colleague who complained.
§ Mr. ADAMSONIf the hon. Member for Perth (Mr. Skelton) will keep his temper, we will get on with the business better.
§ Mr. SKELTONI hope it will not appear in the OFFICIAL REPORT that my temper has not been kept under control.
§ Mr. ADAMSONAnyhow, Members were complaining, and all the appeals made across the Floor—and they were numerous—from Members who represent Scottish constituencies were in regard to the disaster on the 11th of November, but in putting this forward, I never went outside the 11th of November.
§ Mr. SCRYMGEOURDo we under stand from your Ruling, Mr. Dunnico, that the discussion can deal only with herring fishing and no other fishing, under this Fishery Board Vote?
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANNo; any question which is raised in this Estimate 699 can be discussed, but so far as loans to herring fishermen are concerned, they are confined to certain people who met with disaster on a certain date, and we cannot go outside that.
§ Mr. E. BROWNMay I point out that the right hon. Gentleman has been allowed, in regard to harbours, to give a list of things which he has done, but that his colleague objects to us putting forward things which he has not done?
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI am afraid the right hon. Gentleman's good nature overcame his customary discretion.
§ Mr. McKINLAYI thought the Ruling of the Chair indicated that as the Secretary of State had gone wide of the mark on harbours, he was willing to allow a little latitude.
§ Major WOODI do not think I have abused your Ruling in any way. The right hon. Gentleman made a long statement to justify what he had done for harbours, which are quite outside the limits of this Supplementary Estimate. We did not object. On the contrary, we were very glad to hear it. The Under-Secretary said something about whether we were going to be able to discuss credit facilities, but this Vote is to provide credit facilities for fishermen, and that is what I was discussing. My point is that there are other people more needing assistance than those whom the right hon. Gentleman proposes to assist by this Vote, and I hope he will keep them in mind, because we are afraid that the provision of assistance to one class may make it far more difficult than it would otherwise be for the other class, who have been waiting to see what the Government would do for them and who now fear that nothing at all is to be done.
I have some criticism to make of the manner in which these relief schemes were set up. Until after this storm, we never suggested that the Government were under any obligation to make a grant to these fishermen. I said it was impossible to make such a demand because other industries would expect the same, but when the right hon. Gentleman set up a relief fund in the way that he did, the position was entirely changed, 700 and it seems to me that it was quite right for us to ask that the right hon. Gentleman should commence by making a contribution to the fund himself, not in his personal capacity, of course, but as Secretary of State for Scotland. That is the case that we make against the Government in that matter. A great deal was said about it at the time, and it seems to me necessary that I should say that by way of justification of ourselves.
But after the fund was set up, the right hon. Gentleman did several things which I think it would have been better not to have done. For instance, he sent out a form in which he asked for applications both for loans and grants on the same form, and he explained afterwards that all that form did not apply to both loans and grants. He asked, for instance, that anyone filling up a form should state his bank balance, his debts, and the money that he has, and, of course, the fishermen at once fought shy of it.
§ Mr. McKINLAYI must again rise to a point of Order. What part of this Supplementary Estimate has anything to do with the relief fund, which was voluntarily contributed by the public in Scotland?
§ Mr. E. BROWNThis token Vote is put down in advance of the actual grant of a sum to the loan fund, so that we may have an opportunity of debating the Government's action. Surely my hon. and gallant Friend is strictly in Order.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI understand that the hon. Member is dealing specifically with this token Vote at the moment.
§ Major WOODThere are two funds. There is the relief fund and the loan fund; that is to say, the fishermen may apply for grants from either or from both.
§ Mr. McKINLAYMy point of Order is that the hon. and gallant Gentleman has absolutely no right to discuss on this Estimate the question of grants from the relief fund. He is mixing up the two.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYThe hon. Member is confusing the whole issue. My hon. and gallant Friend is now dealing with the question of the loan fund, and not with the relief fund at all.
§ Mr. McKINLAYI want to get an explanation from the hon. and gallant 701 Gentleman. He is mixing up grants from the loan fund and grants from the relief fund.
§ Major WOODIf the hon. Gentleman will permit me, I think he is confusing the issue. I am complaining that the two things were mixed up. Here is the form which was sent out by the right hon. Gentleman. It is headed, "Form of application for grant from Relief Fund and for loan from Government Loan Fund." When fishermen had these forms put before them, they found that they had to state their financial resources, and they had to give all the secrets of their bank balances, if they had any, their debts, and so on; and they objected. The right hon. Gentleman then sent out a notice to say that he did not want that particular part filled up by those who wanted only a relief fund grant. The result was that the administration of this fund was greatly delayed, and caused a great deal of confusion. That is surely a point which I am entitled to make, and it is quite relevant to the Debate.
Apart from that, on the question of the loan fund, the right hon. Gentleman invited applications for loans, and ho did not state at the time, and he has not stated yet, the terms upon which these loans were to be granted. It is most unreasonable to expect fishermen to fill up forms giving all the secrets of their financial position unless the terms upon which it is proposed to grant the loans are stated. No one would apply for a loan until he knew what the terms were. Under pressure in this House, the right hon. Gentleman said that the interest was to be 3 per cent., but beyond that, as far as I have seen, there has been nothing said.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONIt is stated in the circular issued broadcast from Edinburgh on 8th February that the rate of interest is to be 3 per cent., and that the loan is to be repayable in a period not exceeding three years.
§ Major WOODI am much obliged to the hon. Gentleman. I had not seen that last circular, and I tried to get it.
§ Mr. W. ADAMSONThe hon. and gallant Gentleman might have the good sense to apologise.
§ Major WOODI certainly apologise to the right hon. Gentleman if I have made a mistake, but the point which I made is still a good one, because what the Under-Secretary has said means that after setting up this fund, he did not give the terms upon which he proposed to grant the loans until a fortnight before the applications ceased. That was not fair to the fishermen, and I am not surprised, therefore, that the applications for loans were fewer than were expected at one time.
§ Mr. W. ADAMSONWas from the 8th February to 1st March a fortnight? The hon. Gentleman is wrong again.
§ Major WOODThat is three weeks. I say, however, that that is not enough, and it is a great pity that the right hon. Gentleman, when he launched his scheme, did not explain it in full, so that the fishermen might have full knowledge of it, and be able to make up their minds whether they would apply for assistance from it or not. Many of these fishermen are spread over the whole of the west of Scotland at the present time; they only come to land for a few days, and are out of touch in many cases with the salesmen on whom they depend for information. Three weeks is not a very long time for them. I am sorry that I have taken up so much time. [Interruption.]
§ Mr. J. BROWNSo are we.
§ Major WOODIt has been very largely due to the interruptions, and I am surprised to hear that remark from the hon. Gentleman the Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. J. Brown), because this question does not apply to his constituents at all.
§ Major WOODThis fund is only for fishermen who lost nets in East Anglia on that particular night, and I should be very surprised if any of the hon. Gentlemen's constituents were in East Anglia at that time, so that it does not to any extent affect him at all. Therefore, I am surprised that he should object to my 703 taking up the time. We have tried very often to get an opportunity of discussing this matter and have been defeated partly by the right hon. Gentleman. I am bound to say that the money which is being provided now could have been used to much greater advantage. The Buckie Fishermen's Association sent to the right hon. Gentleman a letter in which they propounded a scheme by which they thought the money could be used.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANThe hon. and gallant Gentleman is taking advantage of my Ruling. We must keep to the question whether this money should be devoted for this particular purpose. If we were to discuss alternative schemes, we should be here all day.
§ Major WOODI was pointing out that a definite alternative scheme was put up to the right hon. Gentleman, and he turned it down, although the people who put it up were likely to lose by it. They would get a greater proportion by the scheme which he has put up. I am glad that he has done what he has done, and my criticism of the scheme does not alter the fact that the fishermen are indebted to him for his interest. I hope that that interest will continue, and that it will not be confined merely to the people who lost nets in that storm, but that it will extend to more needy cases.
§ Mr. SINKINSONI have a certain amount of pleasure in learning that so much of this Estimate has been given to my constituency, but the Government have touched only the fringe of what could be done in the harbours. I suppose, however, that we shall have to be thankful for small mercies—
§ Mr. E. BROWNAnd expect more!
§ Mr. SINKINSONI certainly expect more in future. I should like to enlarge upon the question of Eyemouth, which wants to come into the show with reference to the dredger. In Eyemouth we are using a dredger for something like 18 months at a time at a cost of somewhere in the region of £1,100. This has to be borne by the local harbour people. It is a burden, and I hope that, in giving out the use of this dredger, it will be allocated to those regions where the greatest expense is being borne. If, for instance, there are in the Moray Firth, or in any other part of the coast, places 704 where it is costing £2,000 a year for dredging, those places deserve the use of the dredger more than any other place which is spending, say, only £1,000. I claim that Eyemouth should not be lost sight of in future. I thank the right hon. Gentleman for having brought into his scheme the question of Port Seton. That is a small harbour, and is out of date. The mouth of the harbour was made when we had sailing boats and they had to have plenty of space to get in, when the wind would allow, but now the mouth is required to be very much narrower, and I believe that we are going to have sufficient allotted to us to get that scheme brought up to date.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYWe do not get very many opportunities in this House of discussing the herring fishing industry. We have not had a chance of discussing this loan fund yet, and therefore I was a little amazed by the strenuous efforts of hon. Gentlemen opposite, particularly the Under-Secretary of State, to limit the discussion. As to the hon. Member for Partick (Mr. McKinlay), I do not know what he is up to at all, and I do not know what his constituents have to do-with herrings, except to eat them. If he can persuade them to eat more, he will do more good than by raising points of order in the Committee. I want to-say a word or two about some points raised by the Secretary of State, and I hope that he will not take it amiss if I tender to him my sincere thanks and congratulations on what he has been able to do for Fraserburgh Harbour, and some of the other harbours round the coast of Scotland. I know of the difficulty of getting any money out of the Treasury for any purpose connected with the-herring fishing industry, and he has been remarkably successful, particularly in regard to the new construction works in Fraserburgh Harbour.
He referred to the £20,000 allocation which was made for the purpose of reducing the harbour dues to the herring fishers. He might have given the credit for that to the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the money was set aside in his Budget of 1929. That sum was definitely stated in the Budget as being about to be put aside for the purpose of reducing the herring dues to the fishermen. I do not complain that the 705 right hon. Gentleman has now diverted that money from the original purpose to the purposes of dredging. That is just as useful, and perhaps more useful, from the point of view of the fishing industry, than the reduction of dues, and, if he has been advised by the Fishery Hoard to use the money for dredging purposes, I am satisfied. I would like to know from the Under-Secretary, however, how the services of these dredgers are to be apportioned or allocated. Who is to apply for them, and how will they be allocated as between the different harbours on the north-east coast of Scotland?
The right hon. Gentleman took the opportunity of pointing out exactly what he had been able to do, from the financial point of view, for each harbour round the coast of Scotland. I think that everything he said in that connection was out of order on this Estimate, but I am making no complaint. It is a good thing he did do that, but I complain that, when we begin to criticise the administration of the loan fund, he should call that out of order. He cannot have it all his own way, and confine the Debate to things which he has done well, and prevent discussion of things which has mishandled. He has ever-estimated some of his triumphs. He announced the apportionment of an annual grant of £3,000 for piers as if it were a grant of £3,000,000. It is likely to save a bit of one pier, and the scheme is not likely to save the fishing industry round the coast of Scotland.
I am afraid I have not done about Fraserburgh yet, because the right hon. Gentleman has not come down to the real point which, as he well knows, is the £100,000 of debt which is still hanging like a millstone round the neck of Fraserburgh, and which is owing to the Public Works Loan Board. The Board know they will never get that money back, if they have to wait 500 years.
§ Mr. J. BROWNIs that a threat?
§ Mr. BOOTHBYYes! I would like to ask the right hon. Gentleman and the Under-Secretary to make the strongest representations to the Treasury—from a, purely business point of view, quite apart from any question of charity for the fishermen—that if they would consolidate that, loan at a reasonable rate of interest they would be much more likely to get 706 money out of Fraserburgh than they will be by dawdling along in the present way, charging Fraserburgh as much as it can pay. At an optimistic estimate., the revenue of Fraserburgh Harbour amounts to £20,000 a year, and the expenditure comes to about £10,000, so that they have a surplus of about £10,000 a year. If we could consolidate the loan from the Public Works Loan Board at a rate of interest of anything under £9,000 a year, it would give the Harbour Board a sporting chance of being able to meet their obligations and put them upon a sound basis once again Until and unless we do that, the position is bound to be unsatisfactory.
There are two other points which are rather important and which I wish to put to the Under-Secretary. The first concerns the Peterhead scheme, the new scheme for the deepening of Port Henry Dock and for other construction work. I introduced a deputation from the Peterhead Harbour Board to the right hon. Gentleman some weeks ago and he promised then to give consideration to the question. It is a very urgent matter, because Peterhead is the principal port during the summer fishing for the whole fishing fleet, not merely the Scottish fishing fleet, but the international herring fishing fleet, and until this dock is deepened the port cannot handle the fleet efficiently and safely during the summer fishing in July and August. The scheme would give a great deal of employment in Peterhead at a difficult time, and it is one of those public developments which ought to be sanctioned when we are dealing with unemployment. I beg the Under-Secretary to make some pronouncement on the question, if not to-day at any rate at a very early date. I do not know why the scheme is being held up. It is not like an ordinary harbour scheme. As the Under-Secretary knows quite well, Lerwick, Wick, Fraserburgh and Peterhead are the four ports which are required for the use of the international fishing fleet. It is different from the case of the ordinary lay-up ports for the drifters at other places round the coast.
The other question raised concerns Boddam Pier. The hon. Member said it was being considered by the Fishery Board. I know it is, and I believe the Board have sent down an officer to inquire into the position there. Briefly 707 the situation is as follows. That pier has been gradually crumbling away for the last four or five years. About seven months ago it became clear that it was going to collapse, and three or four months ago it did collapse, and the entrance to the harbour is now extremely dangerous, so dangerous that the small fishermen hesitate to go in and out at all. The population of the village is very poor, and they cannot possibly put up the money for its repair. In the interests of safety it is essential that something should be done to restore this pier by building up the part of it which has collapsed. I again ask whether the Under-Secretary can make some statement about the Peterhead dock development scheme and the repair of Boddam Pier, and also say a few words on the subject of the loan to the fishing industry.
I know the Secretary of State thought I was engaged in raising a party point against him when, immediately after that storm happened, we continually criticised his methods of handling the emergency situation created. We did not appeal to him entirely because of and on behalf of those who have suffered in that particular storm. We appealed to him to do something to help fishermen to replace their nets on account of the storm, which had created a special emergency, but neither I nor my hon. Friends below the Gangway ever contemplated that the proceeds of either the loan or the relief fund would be devoted solely to those fishermen who lost their gear upon that particular night. I have always held that they were by no means the hardest hit and as the hon. and gallant Member for Banffshire (Major Wood) has pointed out, the very fact that they were taking part in the southern fishing shows that they were more prosperous than some of their colleagues who were so poor and so lacking in nets that they were unable to leave for the south.
I always disliked the appeal to charity. I am a good enough Socialist for this, at any rate, that I deplore an appeal to private charity to help an industry out of a problem which is economic, first and last. It is a problem which has always existed in the industry and was only intensified by the storm. I have never concealed my dislike of that scheme, and 708 always thought it would be insufficient, and so it has proved to be. I would like to join in what my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Banffshire has said about the mistake of mixing up a relief fund with a loan fund and sending out the same questionnaire. It was not a very wise questionnaire, and it caused a great deal of justifiable indignation amongst the fishermen. It asked them whether they wanted a grant from the relief fund or a loan from the Government. Although I am sure the intentions of the right hon. Gentleman were of the very best, I cannot help thinking that the whole problem of loans and credits for nets for the herring fishermen has not been very well handled. There ought not to have been an appeal to charity, and it ought never to have been mixed up with the question of a Government loan. The questionnaire was most ill-advised and the fishermen were justifiably indignant. The rate of interest on the loan was too high. I wish the right hon. Gentleman would say that although he would make a small grant in cases of necessity to those who have been hard hit, he would await the Report of the Committee which, I understand, is sitting under the chairmanship of an officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries considering the whole question of a permanent loan to the fishermen as a whole for the purpose of assisting them to replace their gear. That is the kind of expenditure which is productive expenditure; it helps an industry to carry on. That expenditure ought to come first—miles before any form of doles or pensions.
I do not know that there is anything more to be said about the loan fund. I gather from the right hon. Gentleman that he has said his last word and there is no question of persuading him to lower the rate of interest or to make it applicable to all fishermen. He still insists that it shall apply only to the fishermen who lost their gear upon that one night. It is something to the good if they are to get it, but I will stick to my point that they are not the fishermen who deserve it most, and I would like to make my protest against the allocation of this loan solely to those fishermen, who, as the hon. and gallant Member for Banffshire justifiably said, were lucky enough, as things turned out, to be at sea on that 709 particular evening. As a point of Order I would like to ask whether I should be allowed to raise a question about research. The Fishery Board carry out a great deal of research work.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYThe next time the Fishery Board Estimates comes up we will have a go at research. In the meantime, I would ask the right hon. Gentleman not to be too indignant with the attitude some of us have taken up on the question of the loan. I would thank him most sincerely for what he has already done for Fraserburgh, and I wish more power to his elbow, particularly in his dealings with the Chancellor of the Exchequer; but it is our business on this side of the House to criticise and to express such criticisms as reach us from our constituents. If we are not to do that we had better pack up and go home. The right hon. Gentleman has been apt to attribute nothing but the most base and sordid motives to anybody who has ventured to disagree with his policy, but I would ask him to remember that while many of us cannot entirely agree with all his methods of administration, we have nothing but the highest regard for his character.
§ Mr. J. BROWNI understand that the last speaker is a Member for Aberdeen and an Aberdonian.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYNo, I am not an Aberdonian.
§ Mr. BROWNThen what I was going to say will have no point. I wish to deal with the statement of the hon. and gallant Member for Banffshire (Major Wood), that I had no interest in the loan or reparations. He himself was pleading that the loan should not be confined to those who suffered in the storm on that particular night in November, because if it were confined to them I gather that his own constituents will not benefit very much. I am much in the same position.
§ Major WOODThe hon. Member has entirely misapprehended what I said. I said that if it was confined to that night over half the money would go to my constituency. I pointed out that my constituents put forward an alternative scheme, perhaps against their own interests.
§ Mr. BROWNI accept that, but I repeat that the hon. and gallant Member did say that I had no interest in the matter. He wondered why it should be confined to that particular night and I agree that it should not be so confined. I am not sure whether I am in order, but I want to talk about reparations also. I suppose it will not be in order, but if I were in order I should say that a fisherman who had lost his gear in the Firth of Forth because of an unlighted buoy should come under some scheme of reparations or compensation from the Fishery Board. I submit that point for the attention of my right hon. Friend. We have enterprising fishermen who do not confine themselves to the West of Scotland but take their skill and their energy into the East. Many hon. Members from the East and the North seem to think there are no fishermen in the West. That is what I am annoyed about. [Interruption.] Certainly. I am sure hon. Members will back me up in saying that there are fishermen in other parts of Scotland besides the East and the North. We in the West of Scotland do not try to levy blackmail on anyone. We do not threaten anyone that we will not pay our debts. If we have contracted debts, we endeavour honourably to pay them. We may be too poor to pay them for a long time but, as soon as we are in funds, we will pay our legitimate debts.
I also want to add my meed of praise to the right hon. Gentleman and the Fishery Board for what they have done. I am not alluding to the huge sum of £10 which was given to clear out rats. I am very thankful indeed that something has been done for the very important harbour of Girvan in my constituency, though not nearly as much as we should like. Still, it is more than our hon. Friends, although they are Scotsmen, did for us in their administration. It is always to the good that we are getting something done, and it amazes me always that Members twit a Labour Government, as soon as it comes into office, because it is not doing enough. It is almost impossible for any boat to come into this harbour. It must wait on the tide. That is because we have had no dredging for a very long time. The river silts very quickly and you can almost wade across the harbour at low water. In some parts you can go across dryshod. 711 We should like it restored to its old place. Bigger vessels are now required, and they will not be able to use it unless we have this dredger in operation. It is the biggest harbour on our side, and it deserves attention. I am assured from the attitude of the Secretary of State that he will do something to wipe out the disgrace of all Governments who have refused to assist such an important harbour. There is another little harbour—
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANWe cannot enter into a discussion of individual harbours. It is quite true that the Minister gave a long list of grants made to various harbours and I did not call him to order, because I thought the Committee would like to have the information, but it is obvious that we could not have a detailed discussion on the claims of individual harbours.
§ Mr. BROWNIf I talk about illegal trawling I shall be out of order also, but to illegal trawling is due a great deal of the trouble and disaster which has overtaken our fishermen, and it should have the attention of the Government at the very earliest possible moment so that it may be abolished and, when we are attacked by illegal trawlers we shall have our Government boat which will be able to lay the others by the heels.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI think the hon. Member must seek some other opportunity to raise that grievance.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYMay we know whether these are British or foreign trawlers about which the hon. Member is complaining?
§ Mr. BROWNA great many of them come from Fleetwood, wherever that is. My geography is a little astray. I am informed it is in Lancashire.
§ Mr. BROWNThough I may have transgressed, I hope that the points will be taken into account, and that we shall have the attention of the Fishery Board while the Labour Government are in office, because I am afraid as soon as they go out a great many of these things will be lost sight of.
§ Sir PATRICK FORDI want to deal with the question of the loan for the results of a specific disaster to the herring fleet. I agree with the hon. Member that we should not treat this question at all as a matter of levity and, further, there can be no question as to our right to discuss it when we remember that the whole livelihood of the country depends upon it being able to hold possession of the trade routes of the seas, to be able to put ships on the seas to carry our produce to and fro, and that that can only be done by having a mercantile marine and a Navy and auxiliaries such as are supplied by our fishermen. Then we realise that the great fishing industry apart from its immediate purpose of supplying food, is also a thing upon which the lifeblood of our people in peace and war depends. Then we realise that, however jocularly we may take some of the points in a Debate like this, we are dealing with one of the integral issues for the whole livelihood of our people. I want to assure the Government that they have made a very grave mistake in dealing with this question of the loan. I am not going to say they should have made it a loan for anything else than this specific disaster. I want to allude to alternative methods. You cannot be expected to justify your criticism if you are not prepared to show you think something better could have been done.
In the first place, I should have expected a Socialist Government to make a grant out of public funds to these people who, through no fault of their own, have suffered loss and not left it to private charity. If they began by countenancing a private charity fund, could not they at least have done what the late Government did in the case of distress in the coal fields and undertaken to give pound for pound to what was subscribed? The response from the great Cities was great, and I m proud to think that Edinburgh headed the list, but it was very discouraging, almost to the point of drying up the fount of benevolence, that the Socialist Government were doing nothing and were asking the private capitalist—for anyone who has savings is a capitalist—to come to their rescue. That was a mistake. Then what did they do when they came to the loan? They mixed it up with this matter of private benevolence and they 713 issued a most shameful questionnaire without giving any indication, having opened up their souls, and revealed, what to Scotsmen comes next to their souls, the secret of their bank books, of the possibility of relief and on what terms these people were going to give. I know the Secretary of State to be a man of kindly heart and the best intentions, but I think he has been misled and has fallen into a most grievous error. He has insulted the fishermen and has done a great injustice to the possibility of doing them justice, either by private charity or by public service. For that reason I want to speak in the most condemnatory terms of the way in which the Government have mishandled this. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman, if he is to be many more years in office, will from this Debate have learnt one lesson—to treat the fishing industry with proper respect.
§ 6.0 p.m.
§ Mr. McKINLAYI rise with great fear in my soul that I am not sufficiently expert on herrings, but there is one item in this Vote in which I am intensely interested—the question of the provision of a new dredger. While the tastes of my constituents in Partick may rise beyond the humble herring, and while they possibly will not be satisfied with anything less than the best of filleted sole, nevertheless we are in the main engaged in the shipbuilding industry, and I am disappointed that the Government have only made provision for one new dredger. The hon. and gallant Member for Banff (Major Wood) desired to know whether it was going to commence operations one day at Banff, then proceed the next day to Buckie and, after picking a bagful of sand here and another there, proceed to meander round the North East coast. He wanted to know how the dredger was going to be used. Frankly, I believe that the fishing harbours of Scotland have been permitted to get into such a dilapidated condition that the only way to deal with them is to have a sufficient number of dredgers supplied. If there is one criticism which I wish to offer more than another it is that I believe there is ample scope for the use of one or two more dredgers in this particular work. I was very much amused when I heard the hon. Member for North Edinburgh (Sir P. Ford) suggest that a Socialist Govern- 714 ment should have made a grab for State funds to enable the fishermen to replenish their gear. I wonder what sort of shouts we should have heard from hon. Members opposite if the Socialist Government had said that they were prepared to issue a loan to the fishing industry or to any other industry free of interest? The question of the pound-for-pound scheme in connection with the Miners' Fund is not on a par with the scheme for fishermen. I am a craftsman myself and I have tools, but I have yet to find that the public funds are available for those belonging to my craft to make good their losses through an act of God.
We have heard a good deal about co-operative enterprise among the fishermen. The hon. and gallant Member for Banff (Major Wood) said that their herrings were a three-part division. If the hon. and gallant Member for Banff was so much interested in this business, I think he ought to have placed his valuable services at the disposal of the fishermen, and he ought at least to have pointed out that it ought to be a standing charge against their results that they set aside a sum for the depreciation and renewal of their gear when necessary. Probably the hon. and gallant Member will say that these fishermen are too poor to make this provision for themselves. If that is so, why not be honest and say that this business cannot possibly exist as a private enterprise. This country always seems to be prepared to bolster up anything with public funds that is not economic, but why not be bold and say that the fishing industry should belong to the nation. I suggest to the Secretary of State for Scotland that this is a question which he ought to explore, and find out where there are dredgers available of which he can make use in Scottish harbours. More dredging facilities ought to be placed at the disposal of the fishing industry in Scotland, because this work is absolutely necessary if our harbours are to be brought up to such a standard of efficiency as will enable them to maintain the fishing industry to get out of the condition in which it finds itself at the present moment.
§ Mr. DUNCAN MILLARI am sure the Committee has listened with great interest to the statement made to-day by the Secretary of State for Scotland in regard to the action which he has taken to give effect to the many representations 715 which he has received from both inside and outside this House as to the urgency for dealing with the needs of our fishery harbours. The right hon. Gentleman has claimed credit for taking action in the matter, but I can only say that no Government which hesitated to deal with the extremely urgent case of the Scottish fishermen at the present moment would be deserving of the confidence of our people. I am certain that the work which has been done is only a very small contribution towards what is yet required, and what will be required to be done in the immediate future.
The Secretary of State for Scotland referred to the amounts which had been contributed towards the Harbour Improvement Schemes, and he has given us a long list. We all welcome the fact that various harbours in our own Divisions have participated in that advantage. I quote, as an illustration, one of the harbours in my Division, that of Anstruther. When a harbour authority came forward, as the Commissioners did there, and offered to pay one-third of the cost of what was required for the immediate work of putting their harbour in order at a time when giving employment to the unemployed was urgent; when the State was asked to supply the balance, the very least that could be done by the Government was to give effect to the proposals which were made to them, and I do not understand why there has been so much delay in the matter. We have been told again and again in this House that the Scottish authorities have not been sufficiently active in putting forward schemes with regard to unemployment, but, when we do so, we have to wait, and I can only say to my hon. Friend who represents the Scottish Office that we do not think that these harbour schemes should have been delayed as long as they have been.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI think it will relieve the hon. and learned Gentleman to know that the Anstruther Harbour Commissioners sent us a letter of thanks for what we did in the matter.
§ Mr. MILLARI am aware that the Harbour Commissioners are grateful for the assistance which has been given to them, and I am glad to know that assistance has been given in that direction. That work is urgently required to be 716 done, and the Harbour Commissioners were prepared themselves to contribute a large amount. It seems to me therefore that the matter should have been dealt with immediately without any delay. The hon. Member for Partick (Mr. McKinlay) justified the position of the Labour Government in refusing to make grants towards fishermen. I can only say that, so far as I am aware, one of the first acts following out the recommendation of their Committee of Civil Research, instead of providing anything for the share fishermen or the herring fishermen of Scotland, was to provide no less than £250,000 towards the subsidising of a very wealthy industry, the trawling industry, in order to provide a new survey vessel. The cost of that vessel was £34,000 a year for a period of five years. That vessel was provided instead of spending more money on coming to the assistance of some of the Scottish fishermen who suffered so severely in the recent disaster.
I would like to say that I share the views which have been expressed by some of my hon. Friends, that the Government did not handle that situation as it ought to have been handled in relation to these funds. There is no doubt that there was an expectation that the Government were going to come into the field themselves in order to help the fishermen, but, instead of my right hon. Friend making a contribution from his own Government, they sent round the hat, and, when the sum contributed fell far short of what was required, it became necessary, in the view of the Government, to suggest another fund, a loan fund of £50,000, which we are dealing with in this Estimate. That fund was only proposed late in the day, and it came into operation under exceedingly unsatisfactory auspices. Forms were first issued suggesting that application should be made without any idea whatever being given to the fishermen themselves as to what the conditions of the loan were to be. I hold in my hand a later form which was issued officially on the 8th of February setting forth the conditions with regard to the loan, applications for which were to close on the 1st of March. The disaster occurred on the 11th November last, and the loan was only suggested several months after that. The conditions of the loan fund were only made available to the fishermen 717 three weeks before the fund was closed. Surely, it is not suggested that that is a fair way of treating the fishermen or that they had adequate notice.
I appeal to the Secretary of State for Scotland that he should not close this fund until every opportunity has been given to the fishermen who may not yet have put in their applications to share in this fund. As a result of what has taken place, it appears that some 278 applications have been received for a sum of £21,520. I feel quite satisfied that if fuller information and particulars had been given there would have been a much larger application made for this fund. I suggest to my right hon. Friend that the manner in which the fund was instituted and the way in which the conditions were set forth has contributed largely to the fact that the fund has not been more fully utilised. In the circumstances, I suggest also that the balance of the fund should still be made available for helping those fishermen who lost their gear and nets on other occasions than the night of 11th November last, and that it should form the nucleus of a replacement fund which the right hon. Gentleman and the Fishery Board might institute for the purpose of meeting the needs of a great many fishermen who have suffered quite as much, and whose cases are quite as hard, as those who lost their gear on the 11th November last. It is not true, if I may say so with respect to the right hon. Gentleman, that none of us on these benches urged the institution of a replacement fund. I remember myself putting question after question on the subject, and I think some of my hon. Friends put questions as well. We have always taken the view that in justice to the fishermen there ought to be a fund to meet the hard cases of men who were down and out, and who have lost their gear on other occasions than the night of the disaster of November last. I am satisfied that there will be no real satisfaction afforded to the fishermen of Scotland until such a fund has been instituted to enable them to replace their gear and also their fishing vessels which are now worn out and unseaworthy.
With regard to the reconditioning of the fishery harbours, we welcome the information that a fund is to be set aside 718 to deal specially with the smaller harbours. The Fishery Board have had a fund for a period of years to provide specially for that purpose, but it is quite insufficient at the present moment. I understand from this Estimate that it is intended by the right hon. Gentleman to provide out of the £20,000 fund for reconditioning harbours a further sum for the Fishery Board for the purpose of enabling them, with the £3,000 grant to the Piers and Quays Fund, to provide for the smaller harbours. Let me say that there are many such harbours at the present moment which are in great need of repair. I will not go into the details with regard to the schemes for particular harbours, but in my own Division the harbour of St. Monance and Pittenweem have put in claims which are awaiting consideration, and these are of very considerable importance to our fishing industry. A great many of these small harbours have silted up and many of them expose seriously to danger the fishermen who come in and go out of them. Therefore, this is a matter of great urgency, and I think the right hon. Gentleman should have these harbours dealt with immediately. Will the right hon. Gentleman be able to give us an undertaking that these other cases which are receiving consideration now are likely to be dealt with at an early date? Let me remind him that with every month that goes by there is always an increasing difficulty and risk in regard to the use of these harbours.
I am glad to think that the right hon. Gentleman himself is aware, from personal inspection, of the needs of these Fife harbours, and of harbours on other parts of the coast, and I would strongly urge upon him that there is a great deal of useful employment that might be given to our unemployed in reconditioning our harbours, and that it is the duty of the Government to take up the question immediately and to have the work proceeded with without delay. After the War, many of the harbours were suffering from being silted up with sand and débris. Many of the harbour authorities have been unable to meet the necessary expenditure, and the provision of an additional grab dredger was essential in order to enable the work to be completed. A great many of these harbours which have been dredged with bucket dredgers still have a great bank of mud right up to the edge 719 of the quay wall, which could not be removed without the use of a grab dredger. We understand now that this new dredger is to be available within a month, and that an opportunity is to be given at once to the various harbour authorities to make their applications and to have the dredgers put into use continuously from this time onwards for the purpose of cleaning out the harbour basins. Perhaps we may get some information with regard to the programme that the right hon. Gentleman has in view, and also with regard to the terms, because, after all, there are a great many harbour authorities to-day—
§ Mr. MILLARI would point out that part of this Estimate deals with the question of providing a new grab dredger and with the cost of maintaining the dredger. A sum is set aside for the maintenance of a grab dredger—
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI understood that the hon. and learned Member was raising the question of the terms of the grant for making new harbours.
§ Mr. MILLARNo; it was for the use of the dredger. I was asking the right hon. Gentleman whether he would give us an indication of what the terms would be, and on what footing he is going to discriminate with regard to the provision of the services of this dredger free, as distinguished from cases in which a charge is to be made. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, many harbour authorities today are not in a financial position to meet the claims which are made upon them, and I would suggest to him that it would be a fair basis to work upon that those harbours which are in need of dredging should be thoroughly cleaned out for the harbour authorities without cost, and that they should be put in a position to start again to endeavour under better conditions to secure a revenue which will enable them to meet these charges to a certain extent in the immediate future. In the meantime, the work requires to be done in many cases without any additional burden being thrown upon the harbour authorities.
I would like, in conclusion, to say, that, while we welcome very heartily the addi- 720 tional provision that has been made for the harbours of Scotland, we are glad to think that the right hon. Gentleman is making use of the machinery of the Development Fund which was set up by a Liberal Government in 1909, and which has been extended by subsequent Governments. I am sorry to say that during the period of the last Government we did not get much advantage from that or from any other fund. The Road Fund, also, was very seriously deplenished. We expect, however, any Government having the interests of the country at heart to come forward with additional assistance out of the Development Fund for these purposes, and I would remind the right hon. Gentleman that those cases which come before the Development Commissioners and are dealt with, come back to the Treasury with the Commissioners' recommendations.
I submit very respectfully that, when the Development Commission have made up their minds that the work requires to be done, the Government of the day ought not to resist the claim, but ought rather in every way to support the applications. I would also remind the right hon. Gentleman that during the period since the Development Fund was instituted, in 1909, down to last year, no less a sum than £427,000 has been spent by way of grants and loans for the harbour purposes for which that fund was instituted, and I am glad to think that the right hon. Gentleman is following in the footsteps of the Government which first instituted that fund. I congratulate him, personally, upon the interest that he has taken in this question of harbour development, and I am glad to know that the Government of the day recognise that the fishermen of Scotland deserve their sympathy and support. I regret very much that that sympathy was not shown in a more practical form at the time of the recent disaster, but I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will be prepared to accept some of the suggestions which have been made in the course of this discussion, and that the fund will be made available as far as possible to meet claims in relation to those who have suffered loss of gear, although their applications have not been put in timeously; and that, so far as the balance is concerned, it will form the nucleus of a larger fund which is now very much needed to meet the claims of men who have suffered on other occasions
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYI am sure that I shall be regarded as a very plucky individutl in rising to speak on a Scottish Vote, and particularly a Vote connected with Scottish fishery matters, but I am not going to apologise for speaking in this discussion, because I want to assure hon. and right hon. Gentlemen who are interested in this matter that I too am very much interested in fishermen, both inshore fishermen and herring fishermen. I want to point out that there is a bond of sympathy even between those who control the great trawling industry and the inshore fishermen. We realise that there is a place for all in this great industry, and we are always interested in and want to help and assist anything that affects the smaller men.
I have risen because I should like to make some observations on one or two points that have been raised in this Debate. In the first place, I should like to know in general terms what are the terms which have been issued by the right hon. Gentleman under which these loans to herring fishermen can be granted, because I have travelled a great deal among the coasts of Scotland in my researches into the fishing industry, in which, as hon. Members know, I take a big interest. I have talked with Scottish fishermen, and they have told me that the 1924 scheme, inaugurated during the time that the Socialist Government were in office before, was not by any means acceptable to the fishermen. I think the right hon. Gentleman will be able to bear me out in this, that the applications made were so small and meagre as to prove really that the scheme was not popular with the fishermen, and possibly that the terms offered were not acceptable to them. I hope that in this present matter the right hon. Gentleman has taken a lesson from that last experience, and has offered terms that will be acceptable to these men. I know many of these men intimately. I have been closely associated with them, and I know that they are a very honest body of men, anxious to do the best they can for themselves and their wives and families, and they ought to have reasonable assistance in this matter.
The hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. J. Brown) remarked that people were in the habit of twitting this Government with having done very little during the short time that they have been in 722 office, and he mentioned that the late Government did not do very much for the fishermen. If it were within the bounds of order, I should like to cross swords with the hon. Member on that point, because I am going to suggest that the late Government did many things on behalf of the fishermen of Scotland as well as of England. The list is a considerable one, and it is no argument to say, without giving facts and figures, that someone else did not do anything. There is, however, some justification for some of the criticism of this Government, because I have in my hand a leaflet, issued at the time of the General Election, telling the Scottish fishermen what this Government were going to do for them. I quite admit that the Government have not been in office for a very long time, but still they have not even begun to carry out some of the promises that they made then. Therefore, I suggest that it is fairly reasonable for hon. Members to criticise them on those lines. If a party makes promises, naturally Members of the House, and the people themselves to whom the promises were made, expect them to be carried out.
The hon. Member for Partick (Mr. McKinlay) seemed to be in a rather critical mood as regards what is being done for these inshore and herring fishermen. He talked about interfering with private enterprise and bolstering up private enterprise, and he wondered why it was that we had to do this. He asked, why not be honest and say that the whole system has broken down? It has not broken down. The hon. Member evidently does not understand much about the life of a fisherman, or he would know that it is a very speculative business. There are good seasons and bad seasons, and to talk about the whole system having failed is absurd and ridiculous. The hon. Member, also, does not appear to realise that the present position is that, with the great trawlers or steam drifters, you have the machine working against the hand methods of the inshore fishermen—
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYI agree, but I was only replying to an observation made by the hon. Member for Partick.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI have said on more than one occasion that I do not know what an hon. Member has said until he has said it, but I can prevent other people from replying to it and developing it.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYThen I will deal with the Estimate, on which, surely, I shall not be out of order. I want to point out, on the question of salaries, that, although we are asked to vote an, additional sum of £140, I, at any rate speaking as an English Member, do not begrudge it to the Scottish Fishery Board, because it is a Board which it functioning very well indeed, and the right hon. Gentleman is exceedingly fortunate in having at his disposal officials such as those who are in charge of the Fishery Board for Scotland. I only wish that we had a system in England somewhat on the lines of the Scottish system. We find that on that Board we have officials dealing with all sections of the industry in Scotland, including those who are responsible for protecting the territorial waters. The hon. Member for South Ayrshire mentioned something about that matter, but he was ruled out of order, and I am sure that I should be ruled out of order if I tried to state the case on behalf of the trawlermen; but might I say in passing that if I had the opportunity, and I hope it will come during the course of some of the Votes, I should be quite prepared to defend the British trawlermen at any rate in this matter, and to put up a good case on their behalf. As that question has been ruled out of order, I shall have to reserve my observations upon it for some future occasion.
The hon. and learned Member for East Fife (Mr. Millar), in regard to the question of the moneys provided in this Vote for certain matters which were likely to benefit Scottish fishermen, said that the Government had not been so generous to the Scottish fishermen as they had been to the trawling industry, inasmuch as the Government were providing a research vessel for the trawling industry and were only providing a small sum to assist the Scottish inshore fishermen and herring fishermen. I should like to point out to the hon. and learned Member that the Government, in making a grant for that purpose, have taken everything into consideration, including the fact that over 724 80 per cent. of the white fist landed in this country is landed by the steam fishing vessels.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI am trying to find out what connection the observations of the hon. Member have with this Supplementary Estimate, but the connection is not very clear.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYI beg leave to point out that the complaint was made by the hon. and learned Member for East Fife that a smaller sum was being provided in this Vote for a certain service than has been provided for another service, and I submit that I am quite in order in pointing out why that smaller sum was voted as against the larger sum. In the Vote a sum is provided for the salaries of the staff, and the duties of the members of that staff are to deal with this very research vessel of which we have been speaking—
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMANI would point out that the additional sum required, which is a mere matter of £140, does not justify a wide discussion.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYI should not like in any way to dispute your Ruling, but I am going to submit that, at any rate, this question of salary has some bearing on this matter. Possibly if this new vessel had not been thought of this additional money would not have been included in this Estimate. I will leave the matter until we have the fishery Estimates before us, and then, perhaps, I shall be able to deal with it fully. I want to say to hon. Members from the Scottish areas that we who represent English fishery areas have every sympathy with their men in the terrible disaster that happened in November last, that we have not begrudged anything which the Government have done, and we should not have begrudged the action of the Government if they had voted the sum of money which was suggested by an hon. Member above the Gangway earlier in the Debate. I know the hopeless and helpless position in which fishermen find themselves when they lose their gear, unless they get assistance. I would suggest to the right hon. Gentleman that he should be very careful in regard to the conditions imposed on the Scottish fishermen in this connection, and should allow them to replace their gear on fair terms. The point which they made to me was 725 that they were compelled under the old terms to purchase their gear from certain firms. That is not good business. It is far better to leave it to the fishermen to make their own arrangements with approved firms. I hope that the Under-Secretary will be able to tell us that they have been able to give a little more freedom to fishermen to purchase gear after they have received help from this loan.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENWe Scottish Members are delighted to have the hon. Member for Grimsby (Mr. Womersley) legally trawling into a Scottish Debate, but when he tells us that the great trawling industry has sympathy and kindly feeling for the inshore fishermen, well, all that I can say is, from the experiences of my fishermen constituents and in the words of the old Book, "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel," because they have suffered tremendously from them. I hope that they will not suffer so much in the future. There are many ports where they have been put to the gravest disadvantage, and where they axe not adequately and properly protected. With regard to the grants to fishermen who lost their gear, there is only one question which I should like to ask, and it is: Are those grants being paid? Have the people got the money? One always remembers the case of the Rye lifeboatmen for whose dependants a large sum of money was collected. Those who collected the money seemed to think that it was an Easter egg on which they should sit indefinitely, and there was a great deal of trouble until the Attorney-General, with great skill, showed how the "shell-out" should be done. That is always the danger of funds of that kind. There is a fund in Scotland relating to a colliery disaster which happened 100 years ago, and there is a brass plate over an accountant's office indicating that the fund is still being administered.
I want to know if these people are getting the money, or does it really mean that this eleemosynary fund is still being held up? I am sure that if there has been any delay, the present Secretary of State for Scotland and his assistant will see to it that that delay is speedily ended. I see here that there are grants under Appropriations-in-Aid, and that there is a dredging department, showing items for the maintenance of dredgers and a grant for the recondition- 726 ing of small fishery harbours, the amount for the latter being £2,300. This sum was hardly worth printing. The reconditioning of our small fishery harbours on the West coast is urgently needed. Take the port of Campbelltown, which would come under the provisions in item C—
The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Robert Young)Appropriations-in-Aid are not part of this Estimate for the purposes of criticism.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENMay I call your attention to Sub-head C. You will there see, "Dredging Department…. Acquisition of a grab dredger. Maintenance of dredgers." This is the same sum of money as that included under Appropriations-in-Aid. Then there is, "Grant for reconditioning of small fishery harbours, £2,300." I think that this entitles me to make my comments.
§ The CHAIRMANThere can be no discussion of policy under Appropriations-in-Aid. The hon. Member must deal with these amounts under Sub-head C.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENI do not want to be long. There used to be a self-denying ordinance in Scottish Debates of limiting speeches to 10 minutes, and if an hon. Member could not express himself in that period of time, he was either purposely prolonging the Debate or he was not a Scotsman—there were doubts about his nationality. May I simply point out that that Vote is really being starved. The Fishery Board say that Campbelltown harbour is not a fishery harbour. It is one of the biggest in Western Scotland and used to be awarded the herring bounty 160 years ago, and when the herring trade was built up, Campbelltown was built up. The Fishery Board refused to dredge the harbour for the fishermen, who are being greatly inconvenienced, alleging that it was not a fishing harbour. I hope that the Secretary of State for Scotland will see that the dredger goes there and dredges the harbour. There is the little harbour of Ardrishaig. That harbour has not been dredged for 60 years, almost contemporaneous with some of the steamboats which supply the district. Because they do not dredge the harbour, the fishing boats have to go into the Crinan Canal basin and have to pay what, perhaps to us may seem a small sum, but which is a considerable sum to the fishermen in 727 these times. The fishermen believe, and I believe also, that the reason why they do not dredge the harbour is that they want to get tolls from the fishermen for entering the canal basin. They really coerce them or compel them to go into the Crinan Canal basin. I ask the Secretary of State for Scotland to get another dredger quickly or to give the small one which there is at Ardrossan in order that this harbour may be dredged.
The Duke of Montrose offered Loch Ranza Harbour, "free, gratis and for nothing." A few thousand pounds would pay for the cost of dredging that harbour, and you would get it for nothing. The Duke offered the harbour to the Fishery Board and to provide the harbour-master. I put the proposal strongly before the last Government, but I could not make them see it, I regret to say, but I feel that in appealing to the party opposite, perhaps I shall not appeal a second time in vain. If the Department will dredge that harbour, they will do great benefit. Nothing pleased me more than when the Secretary of State, the Under-Secretary, and even the Postmaster-General, no doubt requiring education concerning the Highlands, went round and visited many places in the summer and saw the needs of those places. I hope that grants for piers and quays and harbours will be spent quickly and judiciously on these harbours. I believe that one of these gentlemen when he landed at a beautiful place called Strontian and inquired for the harbourmaster, was asked, "Do you mean the man who lays our goods out on the ground and the rain comes down on them and there is no shelter?" That is all the harbour there is. I hope that the matter of a harbour there is going to be put right. There has been no pier for over half a century, and they cannot get their produce away by the steamer which goes every 10 days, as there is no pier and they have to go 20 or 30 miles to another pier. That is where money is required to be spent. Similarly at Bunessan, in the Island of Mull, the pier requires reconditioning. You can see the effect of having no pier on the life of the crofters if you go to Tirêe, where they have a good pier.
I hope that the Secretary of State for Scotland will meet these urgent demands, 728 because the difference in regard to this class of assistance to the community is that you are increasing people's economic statute. It is not like any other form of assistance. If you give the people good means of transport, good roads and decent piers, you encourage them to be diligent. You make them more zealous to get on with their job. I even say that I wish it could be practical and workable for transport to be practically free, so that the remotest parts of the country could get their produce to the central part as cheaply as it is done in the towns. In America and in Germany there are equalisation of rates tribunals which arrange that sort of thing. They arrange for long distances to be traversed practically at the same cost as the short distances. Something of that kind should be developed in Scotland. It is the only way in which you will be able to spread your population over the countryside, and the dispersal of population is the problem of this century, just as the congestion of population of past times was the principal evil of the rise of industrialism.
The Secretary of State for Scotland and the Under-Secretary may rest assured that on this side of the House, at all events, they will get every encouragement that we can give them to improve the piers and harbours by getting them dredged. By doing that, they will enable a very fine section of the population, some of our most vigorous men and women, people who in their daily life are always in contact with the works of the Creator, who always feel His influence in their daily work—and you cannot have a finer type of people, and the money will be well spent—to develop their lives.
§ Major ELLIOTI feel on this occasion some sympathy with the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland. I felt, as he sat listening to the Scottish Members, with their mobility of argument, explaining why this, that or the other place should have special treatment, that I could sympathise with him in the difficulty he would find, and which we all would find, in saying that the state of the public purse did not allow them to meet all the demands which had been made upon them and that they were doing the best they could with the resources at their disposal. I am sure that we all sympathised 729 with the hon. Member for Argyllshire (Mr. Macquisten) when he was emphasising the desirability of the reduction of the transport charges in the remoter parts of Scotland. On that subject the Under-Secretary himself took a prominent interest in the last Parliament. It is true that in regard to the small unit for which some of these grants are being made, the pier and the harbour, there is difficulty in a comparatively large capital sum like that being raised by a small community or even being maintained by a small community. It is one of the difficulties in which our scattered settlements in Scotland frequently find themselves.
We were exploring the possibility in the last Government of putting forward suggestions to see whether in the larger local government units which had been created, the councils which took over the work of the old parish councils, whether it would not be possible for some scheme to be worked out between the central authority and the local authority by which these larger local government units might find it possible to embark upon a policy either of development, or, if not of development, of taking over the maintenance of harbours which are so essential and so vital to the life of the small unit, but which very frequently, being small, they find it impossible to maintain, and still less to repair them once they have been allowed to fall into disuse. I throw out the suggestion that the problem of who is to undertake and, still more, who is to maintain these capital works, might well be explored between the central and the local authorities. Maintenance wholly by the central authority is inadvisable in that it opens the central authority to all kinds of demands, some of which are not entirely justified, and may lead to demands such as were made in the old days of the Irish administration, when piers were constructed more or less as relief works, and it was said that if piers were put down at certain places it would not do any harm to fishing, because there were plenty of rocks there and no boats went there, anyhow. The right hon. Gentleman might consider this larger question of administration when he is dealing with the new grant which he has been able to obtain.
I should like to compliment him on the fact that in connection with the new grant he has been able to secure that a 730 deposit account shall be opened into which unexpended balances shall be placed. I hope that that precedent is not merely for this year but that it will be maintained in subsequent years. Although the Treasury vigorously resist this principle, it is a principle which leads to economy in the long run in that it secures that money is not rushed out during the course of the financial year purely for the purpose of getting it spent, because any unexpended sum is swallowed up by the Treasury. It is better that it should be retained in the hands of the persons responsible, and that they should know that if they save a certain sum that money will go to their credit on a future occasion.
The grant which the right hon. Gentleman has obtained is of the same amount as the grant of which we were able to obtain a promise from the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Conservative Government. We have heard disputes between the two Chancellors of the Exchequer as to whether that sum actually existed or not, but the disputes between the two Chancellors of the Exchequer have become so frequent and involve such enormously large sums compared with this small amount. We may take it this is a grant in respect of which we on this side obtained a pledge from our Chancellor of the Exchequer, and we leave the matter there, with every confidence that Scottish members, having once been promised money, will see to it that that money is forthcoming, whatever Government happens to be in power. We suggested dealing with this money along lines different from that which the Secretary of State now proposes. We were struck, as he must have been struck, and certainly as every Treasury officer has been struck, with the necessity for dealing with these harbour debts. While the right hon. Member for Bewdley (Mr. S. Baldwin) was sitting beside me to-day, discussing the Estimate, he said that he remembered the question of these harbour debts being before him when he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
These debts are ancient and hoary, and it is no longer a business proposition to keep them on the books. We put forward arguments of considerable strength which led to the promise of the £20,000 a year grant by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Roughly speaking, the report of the Fish- 731 ery Board says, something like £57,700 has been forthcoming by way of grant from the Development Fund since 1909, and a sum of £423,925 has come by way of loan from the Development Fund. In addition, a considerable sum has been advanced by the Public Works Loans Board. These bodies are simply the taxpayer under one alias or another. Moreover, several of these harbour trusts have borrowed money from the banks. In looking over the matter, we found that nearly £1,000,000 were owing by these harbours in one way or another, either to the Public Works Loans Board, or for Development Fund advances, or for advances from the banks and the local authorities. It was obvious to us that the time had come to have a large consolidating operation and to write off not merely £100,000 as has been done by the right hon. Gentleman but something like £600,000; certainly a substantial sum. In that way we should be doing what every business firm has to do in drawing a pen through cyphers which do not represent any real value, and from which no real return can ever be obtained.
I trust that the Secretary of State will not be weary in well-doing but that he will approach the Treasury once more and point out that here is a large book debt which has no real meaning, and that it is not good business simply to keep clerks entering up these debts year after year whether they be Public Works Loan debts, or Development Fund debts. The Public Works Loan Board and the Development Fund are merely the taxpayer in another form, and £50,000 taken out of the taxpayers' pockets from the Development Fund is just as much a drain on the taxpayers of this country as £50,000 taken from the Public Works Loan Board. The close and meticulous division that is drawn by the accountants of the Treasury between these various funds is necessary and right for the purpose of accounting, but for the purpose of administration and high policy they should be disregarded, and a consolidating operation should be carried through once and for all. We should say to these harbour authorities: "You owe this money, but we have written off the irrecoverable debt which you never could pay."
My fear is that the right hon. Gentleman is now administering the 732 £20,000 grant for new development and new advances of one kind and another which eventually will be added to the liability of these harbours, and that there will be no writing off of the liabilities of the harbours. We shall find that a harbour, nominally reconditioned, is still hopelessly insolvent, and that the harbour authorities will have a hopeless outlook, which does not lead to sound administration or development. They will not put any of their own money into the undertaking, because they realise that if they have cash in hand somebody will come along and demand their pound of flesh. We found in the case of the de-rating scheme that money saved in de-rating was in many oases simply passed on to the central authority, when a harbour town was nominally receiving advantage from de-rating. That was felt very much by the industries which we were doing our best to deal with.
In these matters we should realise, with the larger local authorities that have been brought into existence, the necessity for promoting schemes for the benefit of harbours. A road through a harbour is just as much a road as a road through the landward portion of a town. The prosperity of the country depends to a considerable extent on the prosperity of its component parts, and money spent in repairing a bridge in a harbour is just as much county development as money spent in repairing a bridge over a river in some other part of the county. I suggest the exploring of the possibility of using larger local authority units as partners in the development schemes, and the writing off by the Treasury of these long-standing debts.
I have not dealt with the question of loans to the herring fishermen, but in that matter I do consider that the Secretary of State is seriously to blame. One feels that a contribution pound for pound ought to have been made to that fund by the Government. The appeal, which was rightly made and well responded to by the people of Scotland, would have been better responded to if the people had felt that the Government were taking a part in repairing the disaster that had occurred. Although we were justified in making a grant to the Miners' Relief Fund, pound for pound, and a very substantial grant it was, the grant to the fishermen is more justifiable, because it was to restore capital and to enable 733 people to become self-supporting, while the grant to the Miners' Relief Fund was merely to tide over distress and was not producing a self-supporting unit at the end of it. In spite of these criticisms, we welcome the Secretary of State for Scotland as a good Scotsman, and as having given proof of his sterling Scottish qualities. Whoever promised the £20,000 the Secretary of State has now secured it, and we wish him well in the matter.
We shall certainly not divide against this Estimate. Let the right hon. Gentleman come back with a better Estimate if he can, because we all feel that, in spite of what has been said by the hon. Member for Grimsby (Mr. Womersley), the great trawling industry is now getting on to an economic basis, but the industry of the small harbours is not by any means on an economic basis, and will need fostering, managing and looking after for some time to come. It deserves well of the country and we should do our utmost to set that industry once more on its feet.
§ 7.0 p.m.
§ Mr. SCOTTI represent a constituency in which there is an enterprising fishing community. There are several harbours, at Stonehaven and other places, on the Kincardineshire coast, and I would like to extend an invitation to the Secretary of State to come to Kincardineshire at the earliest opportunity, as he has been going to other parts of Scotland, and to visit these harbours and see what they require. They require dredging, and I think that the new dredger might pay a visit to them. They also are interested in this question of remission of debt, and I should like to reinforce what has been said by the right hon. Member for Kelvin-grove (Major Elliot) with regard to the consolidation of debt. Stonehaven Harbour, for example, is fairly heavily in debt, and there ought to be established something like a Dawes Commission which would go into these questions of debt. If they decided that there was no chance of recovering it and that it was, as it has been described, a hoary statement of figures, then the sooner it is wiped off the slate the better.
There is one other matter to which I would like to refer. While we are all glad that a fund has been collected for the benefit of those unfortunate fisher- 734 men who suffered on 11th November, I would press upon the attention of the Government the numerous cases that exist of fishermen who lost their boats and gear at other times than 11th November. It happens every year. I myself have quite recently put to the Secretary of State a case where a fisherman in my own constituency lost his boat and gear in a gale. There the Secretary of State had to intimate regretfully to me that there was no fund from which a loan could be given to the man to enable him to replace his means of livelihood. I hope the Secretary of State will press upon the Development Commission or the Chancellor of the Exchequer the need for providing a fund from which such cases can be suitably met.
§ Sir FREDERICK THOMSONI want to put one or two questions before the Debate closes. I entirely agree with what the hon. Member for Grimsby (Mr. Womersley) said with regard to the feelings entertained by the great trawling industry for those engaged in inshore fishing. After all, the great bulk of the fish landed in this country is caught by the trawlers, and they are the most essential part of the industry, but they have every desire to see the in-shore fishermen prosperous, and there is no doubt that from a national point of view the in-shore fishermen are of great importance. There is nothing in the criticism that the hon. Member for East Fife (Mr. Millar) made of the Government on their expenditure on the fishery research question. It is absolutely essential that new fishing grounds should be sought out, and the money expended in that way is truly for the national advantage. As regards the loan to those fishermen who lost their nets, there is one point that ought to be kept in mind, and on which I asked a question yesterday. That is the time for application. It is quite certain that a great many of the fishermen are not yet home, and it is therefore very necessary that the time for application should be extended, especially when one sees the relatively small number of applications that have been made. I hope the Government will keep that point clearly in mind.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am sure the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for Scotland cannot complain in any 735 way of the tone and temper of the discussion which has taken place this afternoon. There has been almost unanimous commendation of him and of his work. I can assure the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire (Mr. Boothby) that the fact that there has been criticism is not in the slightest degree resented. The kind of criticism we have had this afternoon has been, on the whole, very helpful, and will, I am sure, assist the right hon. Gentleman in his daily visits to the Treasury to ensure that still greater consideration will be given to the needs of a very harassed and very deserving class in Scotland. The right hon. Member for Kelvingrove (Major Elliot) spoke about the problem of transfer of capital works to the larger administrative units in Scotland now in operation under the Local Government Act of 1929. That point, of course, has already been considered by the Board and by my right hon. Friend, and in some places active steps have already been taken to that end. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman and his friends that that point of view will be pushed in every possible way. The hon. Member who represents Kincardineshire (Mr. Scott) invited my right hon. Friend to visit Kincardineshire at an early date and see his harbour. My right hon. Friend assures me that it is his intention, if he lives politically long enough, to make a visit to all the harbours in Scotland and to see that the successful steps he has already taken to benefit a large number of them shall be extended to the others which he has not yet been able to assist. The hon. and learned Member for Argyllshire (Mr. Macquisten) asked whether the relief fund could not be paid out. I am assured that arrangements made by the Committee are now all but complete, and it is hoped to begin the payment at a very early date. He will observe that we are being continually pressed to extend the period of the application. As it is obviously impossible to begin paying out and then to have applications afterwards, we are in somewhat of a dilemma on this subject, but the right hon. Gentleman has now decided that we cannot wait any longer, and he proposes as speedily as possible to begin payment. He asked, further, when the new dredger would be ready. The dredger, we hope, will be ready within a month's time, and it is 736 hoped that it will begin operations on some of the smaller harbours on the Scottish coast in a month or six weeks time.
The hon. and gallant Member for Banff (Major Wood), who initiated the discussion, asked by what method priority of application for the services of a dredger would be secured. The right hon. Gentleman proposes that the order of precedence, so far as he can settle, shall be on the ground of need. The greatest urgency and the greatest need will receive priority. There will be no charge whatever for the services of the dredger where the harbour authorities are unable to pay. It will be for the harbour authorities to make out a case on that matter, and of course harbour authorities who are in a position to pay—if there be any—will naturally be asked to make a contribution towards the services of the dredger. The hon. and gallant Member for Banff rather twitted my right hon. Friend on giving a list of harbour authorities who have been asking for assistance during his period of nine or 10 months of office and said that it was a stage army. It is rather unfortunate that he used those words, because we have received from these harbour authorities letters of effusive thanks for the way in which my right hon. Friend has been able to deal with their needs. For example, we have this morning received the following letter from the Anstruther Harbour Commissioners:
The commissioners at their meeting yesterday expressed their gratification that their application for a grant had been attended by success, and instruct us to convey to you their sincere thanks for the assistance you have given in connection with the application and for the interest you have taken in their harbour.Getting letters of that sort from the harbour authorities in areas represented by hon. Gentlemen who made their protest here this afternoon rather indicates that among their constituents there is a greater appreciation of the work done for them by my right hon. Friend than they have.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYUnsolicited?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONYes, unsolicitated testimonials. Turning to another matter, I do not want to make party capital of it, but so much has been said about the attitude of the Government towards the fishing industry that I must refer to it. 737 Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for North Edinburgh (Sir P. Ford), with quite unwonted acerbity, which surprised us very much, criticised the Government for their lack of interest in the fishing community. What are the facts? It is interesting to get the facts. During the past four years of the Government represented by my hon. Friends opposite, the average amount given in each of the four years to the fishing community of Scotland in relief of debt and in assistance to their harbours was £9,382 per annum.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYDid that include the benefit of de-rating?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONThe average amount during those four years was £9,382 per annum to all the fishing authorities, but, during the nine months my right hon. Friend has been in office, there has been handed out £255,280. Now surely these things are facts, and we might have had appreciation of them.
§ Major ELLIOTIs the hon. Gentleman counting remission? He will agree that not a penny of interest was charged on those debts during the whole of those years, and I hope he will not make too much of a virtue of it.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYYou have had some appreciation from some of us.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI know the hon. Member's appreciation in this House is greater than his appreciation outside. I only wanted to make the point that, in fact, we have got more for the fishing industry in the past 10 months and that the Scottish Office have done all in their power. I do not say that we have done all that we could do, or that any Government does that. Of course, there are other interests to be considered as the hon. and gallant Member for Kelvingrove knows. He was engaged daily in thankless appeals at the Treasury. Nevertheless, we have done more in nine or 10 months than I believe has been done by any previous Government in any 10 years.
§ Sir P. FORDOn a point of personal explanation. I quite appreciate what has been done for harbours and so on, but I still maintain that they mismanaged this particular case, which was what the lawyers called "an act of God." I do not think they realised that the industry is more subject to such acts than 738 any other. It was the lack of response to that I was referring to, and I withdraw any suggestion of acerbity apart from that.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am coming to the act of God, and the question of relief, and I hope that, when I have finished, the hon. Member for North Edinburgh will be able to withdraw his tone of acerbity on that point also. As to the question of the relief fund and the loan, hon. Members know the difficulties we have to face. It is quite idle to pretend that there is any similarity between this and the Miners' Relief Fund. The Miners' Relief Fund was handed out by a committee. It was a fund for the relief of destitution and was handed out sometimes in clothes, sometimes in loans on grocers, in the colliery areas. That would never have been looked at in the case of the fishing areas at all, and we had to approach the problem, as the hon. Member for North Edinburgh (Sir P. Ford) would have been forced to, had he been in charge, from a different angle. The problem we had to face was the provision of fresh capital instruments, and if we had begun with nets there was no reason why we should not have been compelled to do the same thing all round the coast. And if with nets, why not with boats and stores? Once you start on that slope there is no reason why you should not provide fresh capital instruments of all kinds not only for the fishing industry but for the cotton proprietors. [Interruption.] It would have been difficult to decide where to stop. Other industries would declare that they have been heavily hit.
§ Sir P. FORDNot by a tempest.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONWe will not quarrel over the cause, but the fact remains that there are other industries who are not able to help themselves, and if we had begun to provide capital instruments in one industry there is no saying where we should stop. We approached it from a different angle. It may be looking back that we might have made changes, but in addition to this grant of £26,250, generously subscribed by the people of Scotland, there was subsequently offered a £50,000 loan fund. It was a sum of money offered at 3 per cent. interest on a three years' repayment basis. The total of grant and loan was £76,250. Applica- 739 tions for the loan up to now amount to £21,520, and in the case of the relief fund to £67,753. It is quite possible, indeed we believe, there are the same applicants in both funds, and it may be that the funds already provided will meet the total number of applications, although I cannot say definitely. We are asked, and quite reasonably, about applicants who have not known in time to send in their application forms. They may have been away at Stornoway or somewhere else fishing and have not known the terms of the loan offer. We are asked whether they will be barred out. My right hon. Friend authorises me to say, "Certainly not," and that any bona fide application for a loan by a fisherman in Scotland will be considered
§ Major-General Sir ROBERT HUTCHISONI take it that only refers to those who suffered in the gale?
§ Major WOODAre you speaking about the loan or about the grant?
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am referring only to the question of the loan, where we have not received applications up to the £50,000. We have applications for £21,520. Up to the limit of £50,000 I am authorised to say that my right hon. Friend will not be harsh in refusing applications which may have been delayed for bona fide reasons. The hon. Member for East Aberdeen has said that he never attributed to my right hon. Friend or myself base or sordid motives in this matter. I should be out of order in making anything more than a passing reference to it, but I think that the orations of the hon. Member which I have read in the public Press, in which he has made attacks upon my right hon. Friend and myself, might have been made in this House where we could have met them. I am glad to know that at any rate what he and his friends may have said in the beginning of this year, when perhaps they may have been under some misunderstanding as to our attitude in regard to the relief and loan funds, as to base motives and bartering public money for political support have not been repeated.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYI never made any such accusation against the Secretary of State for Scotland. I did make an accusation 740 against the Under-Secretary of State. I said that the speech he made at Aberdeen, in which he told the fishing community that they could not expect to get much out of the Government unless they voted Labour, was a most improper speech to make. I still maintain that.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI have seen a reference of the hon. Member, in which he alluded to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State as laughing at the miseries of the fishermen.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYNever. I never made any such statement. The hon. Member has no right to make a statement of that kind. I have never made any such statement. If the Under-Secretary makes an accusation of that kind, he should substantiate it. I ask him to bring forward any proof that I have ever accused the Secretary of State of laughing at the miseries of the fishermen, or to withdraw it.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONIf the hon. Member says that personally he did not make the statement, then I withdraw it, so far as he is concerned, but that the statement has been made by hon. Members of this House is undeniable. I pass from that—
§ Major ELLIOTIf the statement has been made, hon. Members of this House ought to know. I myself have never made any such statement, and I do not think any of my hon. Friends would make it either. I really think the Under-Secretary, who has withdrawn it in full as regards the hon. Member for East Aberdeen (Mr. Boothby), might have left it at that and not repeated the accusation against certain unnamed Members of the House.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am within the recollection of hon. Members in this House and the late Under-Secretary of State himself that this statement has been made. I do not want to dwell upon it.
§ Sir P. FORDI think the Under-Secretary must give us the name of the person or withdraw it.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am sure that the Secretary of State for Scotland does not desire this Debate to close on this note, and, therefore, so far as hon. Members of this House are concerned, I unreservedly withdraw it. The hon. Mem- 741 ber for East Aberdeen, however, has repeated this afternoon the statement that I said at a public meeting that we were bartering public money for political support. That statement was never made by me; was never reported as being made by me by any newspaper; and I challenge the production of any such statement. I have challenged the statement, but it has never been produced.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYI never said that.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI have the report here in the Aberdeenshire papers.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYThe Under-Secretary of State has now accused me of saying that he said he proposed to barter public money for political support. In the speech I made at Fraserburgh I said that was the only implication which could possibly be placed on his speech at Aberdeen, when he told the fishermen that if they did not vote Labour they could not expect to get the same consideration they would otherwise have got. And I said it was a most improper thing for a Minister of the Crown to attempt to barter public money in return for political support.
§ Mr. McKINLAYThe same thing.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI say it is not true. There was no justification for it; and I say so now. No question has ever been put to us in this House to give us an opportunity of denying it. Certainly my right hon. Friend denied it when it was put by way of a supplementary question to another question on another occasion.
§ Mr. E. BROWNWill the hon. Member permit me? I raised the issue with the Prime Minister as a matter of public policy in my question, and the only reason I did not put it to the hon. Member is that there is no doctrine of Cabinet responsibility as regards Under-Secretaries.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONI am not saying why or how—
§ Mr. JOHNSTONWhat I am saying is that there was no justification for the statement, and that no opportunity has ever been given us to meet the allegation of base and sordid motives until now. The decision of the Government as to whether or not they would give a 742 loan or a grant of public money from the State, or put up a relief fund, was not settled upon any basis of political consideration whatever. It is simply hit ting below the belt for hon. Gentlemen opposite to go about the country and make statements of that kind without the slightest justification or authority. The hon. Member opposite asked, quite properly, whether any further consideration was being given to the further reduction of the debt liability of harbour authorities at Peterhead and Boddam. The answer is in the affirmative. The matter is engaging the attention of the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Fishery Board has been very active in getting together all the particulars that affect the matter and the Secretary of State has the question of Peterhead and Boddam and other harbour liabilities under his personal supervision, and it is hoped that within a very early date the remissions of debt that have already taken place and the assistance already given may be extended to other authorities.
I may not have met all the points that have been raised by hon. Members during the discussion. Those points relating to schemes in their own constituencies have been carefully noted, and the Fishery Board for Scotland and the Secretary for State will see to it that, so far as the Scottish Office is concerned, no delay will be allowed to prevent the Fishery Board for Scotland seeing that the fishery harbours of Scotland are placed on a proper financial footing, and that every possible encouragement and assistance is given to the fisherman class of Scotland to enable them to make an economic living and to get a better economic return for their very difficult, arduous and dangerous labour. As we have been assured that there is to be no Division on the Vote, and as the points raised have been very elaborately discussed, I appeal to the Committee to let us now have the Vote, and to proceed to other Votes which hon. Members are anxious to discuss.
§ Mr. E. BROWNI fall in with that suggestion, but I must say a word about the Under-Secretary's reference to an unfortunate speech which he made. I am the only Member who has raised this issue before in the House. I raised it on the morning on which the speech was reported in the Scottish newspapers. I 743 am bound to say that had there been no correction from the Under-Secretary, and if the speech as reported was delivered in that way, then every word of the stricture of the hon. Member is justified. I understand from a letter which the Under-Secretary sent to the "Scotsman" that he does not deny using the words alleged, but states that there was another passage between the two parts of the speech as reported, and that this passage gave an entirely different interpretation to his words. We all know how carefully responsible journalists in Glasgow, Aberdeen or Edinburgh do their work, and really the Under-Secretary must not blame hon. Members here when they have the work of a responsible journalist of that kind before them and draw the only conclusion that can possibly be drawn from a reported speech.
Personally, I hope that nothing more will be heard about it, but I also hope that if the Under-Secretary feels that he must make statements of that kind in future—[Interruption.] The Under-Secretary has had his say and he has referred with, some vehemence to Members on this side of the, Committee. I do not want to pursue the matter any further, but I hope that if he feels that he must make statements such as that, he will make them separately and apart from other portions of his speech. More than that I do not want to say. Naturally I accept the Under-Secretary's statement in his letters to the "Scotsman," that what he did say about the Labour movement was in reference to another subject, and not as reported in the papers that we, read.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONOn a point of personal explanation. May I say that the fullest report of what I did say appeared in the "Aberdeen Press and Journal"? The political remarks I made were not made at all during that part of the speech which dealt with the relief fund. The political references were made at the end of my speech, when I was appealing for support for my party, and I am properly reported in the newspaper I have mentioned. I do not want the hon. Gentleman to make out that I have criticised the Press reports—not at all. The Press report, the fullest report that I have seen, is perfectly correct, but a summarised report appeared elsewhere, 744 with editorial comment which sought to make out that a part of my speech referred to another part altogether. I do not at all accept the hon. Gentleman's strictures that in future I must take care to keep the subject of my speeches in separate compartments.
§ Mr. BOOTHBYThe Under-Secretary has raised this point and has accused me—[Interruption.]
§ Viscount WOLMERIs it not in order for my hon. Friend to speak more than once? We are in Committee.
§ The CHAIRMANIs there any need to discuss this matter further?
§ Mr. BOOTHBYThe Under-Secretary raised this question; I did not. I merely ask to be allowed to reply, as he has made two speeches directed against me. I read a summarised report of his speech. In my speech I said there was only one inference that could possibly be drawn by a fair-minded reader from the report that I saw of the Under-Secretary's speech. I did not see the Under-Secretary's letter to the "Scotsman," but saw one that he wrote to the "Observer," which had commented very strongly indeed, along with the "Times," on the Under-Secretary's speech. I said in a subsequent speech that, so far as I was concerned, if what he claimed in the "Observer" was correct I entirely accepted what he said and would do what I could to put the matter right.
§ Mr. JOHNSTONThen I beg the hon. Member's pardon. I did not see that, and I am very glad to have his statement now.