§ 25. Mr. Willisasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty which ships listed on page 6 of the Explanatory Memorandum, Command Paper 1629, are due to be scrapped during the current financial year.
§ Mr. C. Ian Orr-EwingIt would not be in the public interest to give a breakdown of section D of the "Strength of the Fleet" even if it were practicable to foresee all the events which might change the categories in the list.
§ Mr. WillisDoes not the hon. Gentleman think that section D of the memorandum is misleading and tends to give a false impression of the strength of our naval forces? Is it not true that quite a number of these ships are just waiting to be scrapped? Is it not misleading to suggest that they are all really of very great value as reserve ships?
§ Mr. Orr-EwingMy noble Friend has gone out of his way to be more helpful and to expand this explanatory statement to give much more information than we gave ten years ago. We have expanded if from half a page to two and a half pages and four appendices. I do not think it would be very helpful to define the categories more exactly. There are five categories—reserve ships, long refits, modernisations, scrapping, and sales. They all come within these categories within a single year which this memorandum covers. If a ship met with a serious accident we might move it from the operational fleet to the reserve, and bring forward a ship to the immediately operational reserve. There is a degree of flexibility in this list, and it is, I think, desirable. Moreover, we do not want to give too much information to our possible opponents.
§ Mr. PagetAre not ships to be scrapped in the current year often offered to buyers? Do they have to be kept secret in those circumstances?
§ Mr. Orr-EwingI do not believe it is going to be in the long-term interests 1328 of the taxpayers to show what ships exactly we have on our list. That is another reason why we obscure the issue a little by grouping the ships together in a single list.