§ 3. Mr. Willeyasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the tonnage at present being built in United Kingdom shipyards for registration abroad.
§ Mr. T. G. D. GalbraithThere are 336,990 gross registered tons of shipping at present under construction in United Kingdom shipyards for foreign ownership, and a further 936,677 gross registered tons are on order.
§ 4. Mr. Willeyasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the tonnage of foreign orders in United Kingdom shipyards which have been cancelled this year.
§ Mr. T. G. D. GalbraithA total of 58,860 tons of foreign orders in the United Kingdom shipyards have been cancelled during 1958.
§ Mr. WilleyWhile appreciating that cancellations would affect foreign orders more than home orders, may I ask the Civil Lord if he would, nevertheless, pay attention to the fact that we are somewhat disturbed by the run-down in the proportion of foreign orders? Would he do his best to try to reverse this tendency because, after all, shipbuilding is a very important exchange earner?
§ Mr. GalbraithNaturally, we want to reverse this tendency, but this figure does not represent a very large proportion of the total order book of approximately 6 million tons, or even a large proportion of the total foreign order book of 1.2 million tons.
§ Mr. RankinCan the hon. Gentleman say how many of these cancellations apply to Clydeside?
§ Mr. GalbraithNot without notice.