§ 12. Mr. Chetwyndasked the Minister of Defence whether he will hold an investigation into the inadequacy of United Kingdom defence arrangements in the Caribbean area, in view of the weakness of United Kingdom detection methods, as revealed in the lengthy search for the "Santa Maria".
§ Mr. WatkinsonNo, Sir.
The search for the "Santa Maria" revealed no inadequacy in United Kingdom defence arrangements in the Caribbean.
§ Mr. ChetwyndHow can the right hon. Gentleman make that outrageous statement when it took almost four days to find out where this great vessel was, maintaining complete radio activity? What would have happened had it been a hostile submarine submerged and maintaining radio silence? We should not have found it yet.
§ Mr. WatkinsonI do not know whether the hon. Gentleman served at sea, as I did, during the last war. if he did, I think he will accept that an ocean is a very big place. As to the particular case which concerns a British frigate, it would have needed second or third sight on the part of the commanding officer to ascertain that, when he was quite justifiably in need of refuelling, the "Santa Maria" was about to sail.
§ Mr. G. BrownWould it be a fair point to ask the Minister whether the commander should not be congratulated upon his obvious use of the Nelson touch to give Her Majesty's Government time to get their policy right?
§ Mr. WatkinsonI think what the right hon. Gentleman is saying is that this was a diplomatic running out of fuel. I am happy to assure him that it was an actual and very practical running out of fuel.
§ Mr. S. SilvermanWhat makes the right hon. Gentleman happy about that?