§ 50. Mr. GARDNERasked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence whether the defence of the civil population from the results of possible bombing attacks from the air will be directly, or indirectly, part of the work of his Department?
§ Sir T. INSKIPIt is part of my duty to ensure the co-ordination of all air defence measures. But passive or precautionary measures, which are I think what the hon. Member has in mind, are the responsibility of the Home Office. He may care to refer to paragraph 44 of Command Paper 5107, and to earlier paragraphs, as regards the functions of the Army and Air Force.
§ 51. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence whether tests as to the effect of bombs and torpedoes from the air will be carried out before expenditure is incurred upon new warships?
§ Sir T. INSKIPExperiments have been carried out continuously for some time past and will continue, but the Prime Minister proposes to appoint a subcommittee of the Committee of Imperial Defence to examine the results and the conclusions which can be drawn from them. The terms of reference will be:
To consider the experiments that have taken place or are proposed in connection with the defence against aircraft and the vulnerability from the air of capital ships.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODWhile thanking the right hon. Gentleman for his answer, may I ask him whether both the Air Ministry and the Admiralty will be in charge of the experiments?
§ Sir T. INSKIPYes, Sir. If my right hon. and gallant Friend means whether each of them will be in charge of each single experiment, my answer may require some modification, but generally, the answer is "Yes."
§ Mr. LAMBERTWill the sub-committee have within their purview the vulnerability of our dockyards from aerial attack?
§ Sir T. INSKIPNo, Sir.