§ 8. Mr. Rankinasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he is aware of the decline in shipbuilding orders on Clydeside; if he is further aware that not more than 50,000 tons of new orders have been booked this year, and that the cancellation of an order for two new tankers to be built by Messrs. John Brown practically wipes out this total; and what steps he is taking to arrest this decline in order to bring a good New Year to the Clyde.
§ Mr. J. P. L. ThomasI am aware that the rate at which orders for new merchant ships are being placed on the Clyde is at present well below the current rate of output from the shipyards and that some orders placed in 1951 and 1952 have been cancelled. In spite of this, on 1st October, 1954, the Clyde shipbuilding industry had 81 ships of 620,000 gross tons under construction and orders for 99 ships of 655,000 gross tons on which work is still to be started. I hope that shipbuilders on the Clyde, as elsewhere, will be fortunate in their negotiations for new orders in 1955. My information is that there has been a slight improvement recently in the rate of ordering.
§ Mr. RankinWill the Minister note that in 1951 the number of orders booked on the Clyde amounted to 1,200,000 tons? That was the last year in which the Labour Government were in power. In 1953 the number of orders booked on Clydeside amounted to 100,000 tons. Does not the Minister agree that that is a most serious decline in the bookings of new orders? Will he do his best to watch this very grave tendency and remove whatever barriers exist at present to the booking of new shipbuilding orders?
§ Mr. ThomasI think that the figures given for 1951 are hardly unconnected with the Korean war. I think that that played a very large part in the matter. However, I assure the hon. Gentleman that I am not complacent about this subject and will certainly watch the matter.