§ 17. Mr. Kirkwoodasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the fact that £7,000,000 worth of merchant shipping is at present under construction for British owners in yards outside Great Britain, that nine-tenths of the obsolete shipping is sold to be broken up outside the British Isles and that, owing to the increasing unemployment in the British shipbuilding industry, the problem is urgent, he will immediately introduce legislation to protect and revive the merchant shipbuilding of this country?
§ Mr. StanleyI have no official figures of the vessels at present under construction abroad for British owners. I understand that the greater part of the tonnage removed in the last two years from the British Register for breaking up was sold in this country. I am, however, fully alive to the difficulties of the shipbuilding industry, and, as the hon. Member is aware, the whole question is at present under urgent consideration.