HC Deb 03 July 1963 vol 680 cc355-6
4. Mr. Burden

asked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty if he will award the construction of a nuclear hunter-killer type submarine to Chatham Dockyard in view of the fact that Vickers-Armstrongs are having to delay their construction of these in order to carry out their programme for two Polaris vessels.

Mr. Hay

No, Sir. As my predecessor explained on 1st May to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Commander Courtney) there is no question at present of equipping a Royal dockyard for building nuclear boats.

Mr. Burden

Does not my hon. Friend think that it is about time that the Admiralty got its priorities right and stopped flirting with the idea of a multi-manned surface Polaris fleet and got down to the business of providing us with adequate defence against the 400 submarines known to be in the possession of Soviet Russia? Surely my hon. Friend will agree that hunter-killer submarines are the best antidote to this threat. Will he, therefore, consider putting something in hand which will make sense?

Mr. Hay

From all accounts, I had not thought it was widely believed that we had been flirting with the idea of a multilateral force. I think that my hon. Friend knows perfectly well that we have a long-term hunter-killer programme which has been temporarily interrupted so that we can deal with the Polaris programme. But that goes a little wide of the Question, which relates to Chatham Dockyard.