HC Deb 20 April 1932 vol 264 cc1455-6
6. Mr. MANDER

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the names of the officers who are representing the British Government on the various subcommittees of the Disarmament Conference at Geneva in the absence of the principal delegates?

Mr. EDEN

A distinction must be drawn between the committees, or commissions, of the Disarmament Conference, and their sub-committees or technical committees. As regards the former, of which a list was given in my reply to my hon. Friend on the 14th April, the General Committee alone has sat since the recess, and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom have been represented upon it by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Of the latter, only two have sat since the recess; first, the sub-committee of the Political Commission appointed to deal with the question of Moral Disarmament, on which Mrs. Corbett Ashby, the substitute delegate of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, has been our representative, and secondly, the Technical Committee of the National Defence Expenditure Commission, on which we have been represented by Mr. K. Lyon, C.B.E., of the War Office. For the future an arrangement has been made that the Defence Departments shall be represented on the committees by their respective Secretaries of State whenever matters of first-class importance are under consideration; and otherwise by their respective Parliamentary Under-Secretaries.

8. Mr. RALPH BEAUMONT

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty what is the total tonnage of warships under 10,000 tons and over 10,000 tons, respectively, laid down by Italy since 1920?

The FIRST LORD of the ADMIRALTY (Sir Bolton Eyres Monsell)

The total tonnages of vessels of the capital ship, cruiser, leader, destroyer and submarine categories laid down by Italy between 1st January, 1920 and 19th April, 1932, have been:

Over 10,000 tons … Nil
10,000 tons and under … 218,658
No vessels of the 1931 programme are included in the above.

Mr. BEAUMONT

Is it not a fact that the Italian representatives at the Disarmament Conference have proposed the abolition of all ships over 10,000 tons?

Sir B. EYRES MONSELL

Yes, I think that is so.