§ 13. Sir DOUGLAS THOMSONasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has given consideration to the desirabilty of there being examinations for the Mercantile Marine held in Aberdeen; whether he can arrange for examinations to be held there in the future; and whether, in view of the distance from the North-east of Scotland to Glasgow or Leith, he will consider distributing examinations between Glasgow and Aberdeen?
§ Captain EUAN WALLACE (Secretary, Overseas Trade Department)Before deciding to re-open Hull and Leith as examination centres for candidates for Board of Trade Certificates of Competency, my right hon. Friend gave full consideration to the position of other centres, including Aberdeen, which were closed in 1932. He came to the conclusion that it was reasonable to re-open one centre in England and one in Scotland and it is clearly to the greatest advantage to re-open the centres which, 2800 under the old arrangements, were used by the largest numbers of candidates. Those centres are Hull and Leith and he regrets that, in these circumstances, he cannot accede to my hon. Friend's request.