§ 40. Major GLYNasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will prepare a return showing in their various classes the warships of the following countries, indicating how far to date the building programmes have been carried out or 1238 modified, Great Britain, United States of America, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan: ships in commission, laid down and building, and scrapped in the years 1918, 1925 and 1931?
Mr. ALEXANDERThe preparation of a return of this nature involves a great deal of labour for which staff is not provided. In view of the fact that all the information asked for in the question is, with very few exceptions, available in returns already published, I do not think I should be justified in ordering such a return to be prepared.
§ Major GLYNWould the right hon. Gentleman send me the reference to the particular documents?
Mr. ALEXANDERA good deal of the information will be found in a Blue Book which the hon. and gallant Gentleman knows of, the Annual Return of Fleets, which has been published regularly since 1921.