HC Deb 04 March 1959 vol 601 cc417-8
3. Mr. Bottomley

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty whether it was with his approval that the Medway Chamber of Commerce was told by the Admiral Superintendent of the Royal Dockyard, Chatham, on Wednesday 28th January that in selecting Chatham as the first yard for the reorganisation and modernisation of the Royal Dockyards its own future was assured.

The Civil Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. T. G. D. Galbraith)

The Admiral Superintendent's speech was intended to emphasise that Chatham Dockyard is not being closed, as was made clear in my noble Friend's Explanatory Statement on the Navy Estimates last year.

Mr. Bottomley

Does not the Civil Lord think it would have been better for the First Lord to have accepted the invitation of the civic authorities to make this statement himself?

Mr. Galbraith

I am not certain what the right hon. Gentleman is getting at. The statement about Chatham continuing as a naval dockyard was made a year ago in the Explanatory Statement of my noble Friend. Having said it once, there was no need for him to go all over the country to every place which was not to be closed in order to say it all again.

Mr. Bottomley

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware of the great anxiety in the Medway towns, particularly at the time when the closing of the dockyard was first announced, when the First Lord was invited to come by the civil authorities but failed to do so.

Mr. Galbraith

My noble Friend made a statement in the Explanatory Statement, which I reiterated during the debates on the Navy Estimates last year. I do not see what more one can do than that.

Mr. Burden

Is it not a fact that on 19th March last year a deputation from the Medway towns was received and that the First Lord gave a solemn undertaking to that deputation, which included the right hon. Member for Rochester and Chatham (Mr. Bottomley) and myself, that the future of Chatham dockyard was assured, which was stated in the local Press, and that since that date both the right hon. Gentleman and myself have been advised that this was to be a pilot yard?

Mr. Galbraith

I think that is true.