§ LORD STRICKLAND rose to ask whether His Majesty's Government will 61 facilitate the revision at private expense of the plans for a base for seaplanes in Malta on the precedent permitted in the case of the Valetta breakwater; and to move for Papers. The noble Lord said: My Lords, the question of bringing to fruition the great opportunities afforded by Providence for constructing a first, class base for seaplanes in Malta has been several times before your Lordships' House and on this occasion I only want to refer to new facts. It is a circumstance of happy augury that to-day the Ministers who are entrusted with the destinies of the Empire in the air and on the water have taken their seats in your Lordships' House, and I feel a special pleasure in remembering that I had the honour to sit with both of them in another place. A circumstance of special importance in connection with this scheme is to be observed in the developments that have taken place since last, July, developments which press for the co-ordination of defence considerations with commercial possibilities in order to make an outstanding centre for airborne traffic in what has been strategically the most important part of the whole of Europe through the centuries.
§ When this matter was on a former occasion before your Lordships' House the attitude taken by the representative of the Colonial Office was that the Government were more concerned with encouraging the development of opportunities for alighting on the land than with opportunities for alighting on the water. Immediately after that reason for non-consideration had been put before your Lordships' House a flight of large and powerful flying boats experimentally tested the possibility of proceeding from Plymouth to Gibraltar and thence to Malta. It can be noted with satisfaction that, although there was objection to the suggestion, nevertheless the suggestion was adopted. There is a further reason for the discussion of this question inasmuch as the harbour of Malta is already overcrowded. It may soon be so overcrowded as to impede the movement of His Majesty's ships. The overcrowding now makes it necessary and inevitable that His Majesty's shins should encroach on civil anchorages and ignore solemn covenants and pacts as to the apportionment of the waters of two harbours. That is a palpable and outstanding 62 grievance that should be compromised and settled by providing more space and having a new division of respective rights.
§ It is to be regretted that the best berths for flying boats in the south east bay of Malta have been already apportioned for the advantage of foreign aircraft. That is a matter of great regret. It developed with the Ministers who were dismissed and some correction of that apportionment should be possible to the advantage of British-owned aircraft. Certainly it is evidence that facilities for adjusting Imperial and local interests were not taken into account on that occasion. Plans prepared by a Maltese Ministry that had Imperial interests at heart were accompanied by detailed estimates coming to a, total of £2,500,000 plus contingencies, not the £25,000,000 that was stated to be the cost some years ago through a typist putting in an additional nought when the matter was first opened up. Probably differences in the cost of labour, the fact that cement is being manufactured more cheaply and largely in this country and the fact that the workers of England would get a large part of this £2,500,000 when expended, may be regarded as new circumstances deserving consideration.
§ Apart from the rectification of estimates there is also the question of legislation to secure that increments arising through the creation of new and valuable building sites should be used as a set-off against the cost instead of being permitted to benefit only private persons. Refusal to have these plans brought up-to-date at public expense has been based upon some recondite principle as to the existence of which my administrative experience and legal knowledge have so far failed to enlighten me. It is quite on a par with the attitude of the Colonial Office at the beginning of this century when plans had to be prepared for the two breakwaters that now make Malta of great value in connection with defence, breakwaters without which Malta would have been useless in the Great War. That non possumus attitude was identical with that taken up in your Lordships' House when this question was last before you. In the case of the breakwaters the objection taken on the score of expense was met by permission being obtained to have the plans brought up-to-date at private expense, and I see no 63 reason why the Maltese should not be allowed to raise a subscription to follow that precedent and bring these plans up to date at private expense by paying overtime to the draftsmen in the Works Department. The suggestion now is that a similar permission should be given.
§ It is deeply felt on the highest naval opinion that this is a work of great urgency and importance, becoming more urgent and important every day, especially as Malta has in the last three months become an impregnable armed camp on the frontier—except for the absence for facilities for the landing of flying-boats. These works cannot be carried out in a few weeks, but the urgent need for such accommodation may be greater three or four years hence that it is to-day. Therefore these works should be taken in hand and this permission given. No new precedent is asked for. The spade-work requires time and patience, and all that we ask is encouragement for it. The time will come when some naval genius like the late Lord Fisher will not only grasp the necessity, as was done in the case of the Valetta breakwaters, but will also declare that the moment has come to cut short evasions and to ensure that the work in Malta may be begun. There may be some genius in charge of our naval defences who will co-ordinate the jealousies and demands for money in the various Departments and so finally bring everybody to co-operate in adjusting the various water rights and in building this breakwater by an apportionment of costs between the parties interested. I beg to move for Papers.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AIR (VISCOUNT SWINTON)My Lords, your Lordships will only expect, I think, a very brief reply to the Motion which the noble Lord has moved, for I observe from the OFFICIAL REPORT that a Motion in almost identical terms—or at any rate with the same object—was moved in your Lordships' House as recently as the middle of last July and was very comprehensively dealt with by my noble friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. The noble Lord again asks that either the Government of Malta or the Imperial Government should undertake some expense: first of all, the expense of a preliminary inquiry, but with the avowed object of spending an 64 enormous sum thereafter upon the establishment of a seaplane base in Malta. The noble Lord has mentioned the sum of £2,500,000. That is the most conservative estimate which has been put forward; it might well be a larger sum. Such an expenditure could not be contemplated except on grounds of stern necessity, least of all at a time when large expenditure is called for in other quarters on our defence forces. Obviously it would be very wrong to raise false hopes in Malta or anywhere else by engaging in long preliminary inquiries if they were never to lead to any result of importance.
Such expenditure could only be justified under the compelling necessity of defence, or because there was a great opening for civil aviation. As regards defence, I can say categorically to your Lordships that it is the considered opinion of both the Naval and the Air Staffs that this expenditure is not only unnecessary but would also be wholly unjustifiable. There is only one squadron of seaplanes now in Malta; they are berthed on the south side of the Island. There are two possible anchorages for seaplanes in Scirocco Bay, and there is an alternative possibility in the north in St. Paul's Bay. In the future, however—and the noble Lord has traced the possibility of future development—as far as it can be seen, so far from a large seaplane base being established in Malta, the probability is that even that single squadron of seaplanes which is now stationed there will at some time be replaced by land planes. There is therefore certainly no need in naval air strategy which would justify his proposal. So far as civil aviation is concerned, there is equally little justification. I hope that before very long Malta will become one of the ports of call on the great Imperial air routes which we are busily developing, but when that takes place the probability—indeed I think I can say almost the certainty—is that the Imperial aeroplanes which will be engaged on that route will not be seaplanes but will be land planes. No more, therefore, on the civil side than on the naval or military side would there be any justification for this expenditure.
The noble Lord introduced a suggestion which was not, I thought, wholly germane to the argument: that some undue preference had been given to foreign seaplanes in the harbours of Malta. As that 65 point has been raised I should like to say quite definitely that there is no kind of justification for the suggestion. No such preference has been given or will be given. We are parties, in common with most civilised countries in the world, to an International Air Convention, which governs traffic in the air over all the countries of the world. We are also parties to a special Air Agreement with Italy which is greatly to the advantage of both countries. Under both the general Convention and the particular Agreement we are bound to accord to the aircraft of other countries, as we are entitled to receive and do receive in most countries, facilities of the best possible kind. It is the mere carrying out of that Convention and of that Agreement which has taken place in Malta. It so happens that an Italian company alone has benefited by the facilities, because no company other than an Italian company has thought it to be to its advantage to land a commercial seaplane in Malta. But if the time should come when any British commercial seaplane landed in Malta, then, of course, that plane would receive exactly the same treatment as is now accorded to Italian planes in the harbour.
I hope I have dealt fully with the proposal which the noble Lord has made, and I think I have satisfied your Lordships that it would be not only unjustifiable but very wrong of either the Maltese Government or the Imperial Government to engage in any expenditure upon so doubtful an enterprise.
§ LORD STRICKLANDMy Lords, I beg leave to withdraw the Motion, but it is my duty to observe that I have had no answer to the main point of my Question, as to whether permission would or would not be given on the quoted precedent for the revision of the plans at the cost of private subscription, which would in no way commit the Government.
§ Motion for Papers, by leave, withdrawn.