§ 55. Mr. MAGNAYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been drawn to the risk of losing millions of public money that was incurred by the grounding and the risky manoeuvring of the steamship "Queen 1826 Mary," on Tuesday, 24th March, in the tortuous channel of the Clyde estuary; and will he make it a condition of grantting assistance for the building of the sister ship that it shall be built on a river where a safer passage is available?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThis is not in my judgment a matter which would require the intervention of His Majesty's Government in the event of a decision to build a sister ship. I have been in communication with the builders and owners of the "Queen Mary" and am informed that no undue risk was involved in bringing the vessel down the Clyde, and that the builders with the co-operation of the Clyde authorities made adequate provision for the safe handling and movement of the ship. I am further informed that all parts of the structure have been examined in dry dock at Southampton and have been found in an entirely satisfactory condition with absolutely no evidence of grounding.
§ Mr. MAGNAYAre we to understand that the whole nation and photographs by unattached observers are all wrong, that our heads are as soft as Clyde mud, and that we have been misinformed? If the sister ship is to be a larger boat; would it not obviously be in the Cart if it came down the Clyde?
§ Mr. KIRKWOODIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that I was on the bridge while the vessel went right down the Clyde, and that it kept to schedule time until Duncan Cameron, the pilot, handed it over to Sir Edgar Britten, who is now in the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery, and who would tell the House, if he were permitted, that it is the finest ship he ever handled?