INSHORE FISHING INDUSTRY BILL. (Hansard, 26 November 1945)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (THE EARL OF HUNTINGDON)
My Lords, the object of this Bill is to help inshore fishermen, or other suitable people who wish to become inshore fishermen, especially those returning from the Services; so that the industry can he started again under favourable conditions. This Bill, with certain verbal modifications, is a replica of the Bill introduced by the late Government into the last Parliament and on that account I hope it will commend itself to the members of all Parties. The proposals are modest enough; and are confined to inshore fishermen engaged in the catching of fish and shell fish, excluding herrings. In the summer of last year a somewhat similar Bill was introduced by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, with the support of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, to provide financial assistance for herring fishermen and to equip the Herring Industry Board, which was in existence before the war, with fuller powers so as to enable that industry to get under way as soon as the exigencies of the war permitted. The measure for which I ask a Second Reading is intended as a complement to the other measure and will enable the inshore fishermen to whom it applies, on their return from the Forces back into the industry, to obtain such facilities as they need to re-equip themselves for their post-war tasks.
8 There are three good reasons why this Bill should pass speedily through your Lordships' House and become law. In the first place I need hardly remind your Lordships of the gallant services of these fishermen during the war. Those who were not serving in the Navy, the Mercantile Marine or with any of the Services carried on in a magnificent way. Although subjected to severe restrictions as regards fishing grounds and the times during which they could fish, they have carried on their occupation of fishing in face of all dangers and in face of all risks of mines, of enemy attack from the air and from surface craft, and have made a tremendous contribution to the nation's food supplies. Before the war these fishermen, who number some 17,000, were not doing too well. During the war many of the boats have been laid up and will want complete overhaul—in many cases complete renewal. New equipment will also have to be provided. His Majesty's Government feel that, without some financial assistance from the State, the inshore fishermen will not be able to face this heavy expenditure.
Secondly, I should like to remind your Lordships that in spite of the growth of air power and the development of atom bombs, this island must still rely on its Navy and its Mercantile Marine; and will still urgently need men brought up in the traditions of the seafaring life. You will all remember the heroic part these fishermen played in evacuating our troops in their little boats from Dunkirk. I hope that our fishermen will never again have to be put to such an ordeal, but I am sure we all realize the importance of maintaining a contented and numerous fishing population, with their intricate knowledge of local conditions and their stirring seafaring qualities. The third reason is that in the new conditions in which we find ourselves, with a world food shortage and with most of our foreign investments gone, we must depend to a great extent on food produced at home; and fish is a most valuable part of our diet. For those three reasons I hope your Lordships will consider this Bill favourably.
Now I may turn to the Bill itself, which is a very simple and modest Bill. Under Clause i the responsible Ministers seek authority for grants up to £500,000 and loans up to £800,000 for persons engaged in the inshore fishing industry or 9 desiring to engage therein, in particular those who have been previously so engaged and persons who have served whole-time in the Armed Forces. This assistance may be applied towards the acquisition of boats or equipment, or towards the improvement or reconditioning of boats or their equipment, or both. No grants may exceed one-third of the price of the boat or the equipment or one-third of the cost of any improvement or reconditioning.
The general intention is that an applicant who needs a grant as well as a loan will be expected to find 10 per cent. of the cost himself; 33⅓ per cent. of the cost can be by way of grant and the balance, 56⅔ per cent. by way of loan. On the other hand, if an applicant does not need a grant, he may get a bigger loan than he otherwise would. The grants may be made over a five-year period but under Clause 2 there is to be a possibility of extending it by Order for up to two years. All this, I may remind your Lordships, is in line with the Herring Act of 1944. Clause 3 contains certain definitions. "Inshore fishing industry" means the business of catching and landing in Great Britain of fish, including shell fish found in the sea, by means of boats not exceeding seventy feet in length and not exceeding fifty tons gross tonnage. There is a proviso that no assistance shall be given under this Bill in respect of any boat or equipment which is mainly used or intended for use for the purpose of herring fishing.
I hope that your Lordships will give approval to this Bill in all its stages with a minimum of delay. It is of the utmost importance that demobilized fishermen should find these facilities awaiting them on their return to civil life. They will then be put in more or less the same position as the herring fishermen, for whom financial facilities have already been provided by the Herring Industry Act of 1944 and its predecessors. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.

§ LORD BALFOUR OF INCHRYE
My Lords, we on this side of the House agree with the noble Earl who introduced this Bill that it is a good measure and, as 10 the noble Earl said, it is helping a most gallant band of men. I would associate noble Lords on this side of the House with what the noble Earl has said concerning the gallantry of these men and the national services they performed during the war. I had the honour for sixteen years, when was a member of another place, of representing a constituency which embraced many of these inshore fishermen, and I know what splendid work the men of the East coast of Kent did. Not only did they provide in war men for the Mercantile Services, but during peace-time they manned the lifeboats. Many a man owes his life to the Margate and the Ramsgate Lifeboats that used to go out in appalling weather to the Goodwin Sands and save lives, with no other reward than the satisfaction of having done a job well and properly.
This Bill, good as it is, is only part of a pattern—the whole pattern for the resuscitation of our sea fishermen—and whereas this Bill provides for financial grants for the obtaining of boats and equipment, such financial help is of no avail unless also the noble Earl's Depart-merit can obtain from the Board of Trade and the Supply Departments the necessary priority to enable the equipment to be obtained for which the money is going to be voted. I will not press the noble Earl now 'for particular assurances on that point, but I would be glad if he would make a note in order that we, on this side of the House, in supporting this measure, can feel assured that together with the financial grants will go a measure of priority in the supply of boats, boat equipment, netting and other inshore fishing requirements, which will enable these men, directly they get the grants, to have the full advantage which it is intended shall come to them.
The other point I would touch on for one moment is the need for the protection of our spawning beds from depth charges and bombs used in practice naval and air operations if our stock of inshore sea fish is to be revived. Those noble Lords who take an interest in these matters will know that this year has been a phenomenally bad one for fresh water fish running into the rivers from sea water. I refer particularly to salmon and to sea-trout. There have been many arguments as to the cause of this shortage around our 11 islands. There is a tenable theory, which is subscribed to by many experts—namely, that one of the causes is the constant releasing of depth charges and bombs within a few miles of the shore. That is necessary in war-time, but I hope the noble Lord's Department will take up with the Service Departments the question of the need for conducting operations of that character, required to be performed in peace time, well out to sea so as to save the inshore fish from those dangers. I sincerely trust that in conjunction with this Bill there will be a review by the sister Department of the noble Lord's Department, the Ministry of Food, in order to see that the extra fish obtained by the inshore fishermen will go to the housewives in every part of the country in increasing quantities and rather fresher in condition than is often the case at the present time.

LORD SALTOUN
My Lords, I should like to join with my noble friend in saying that I am quite confident that inshore fishermen will be grateful to His Majesty's Government for this Bill. I am the owner of a boat myself, I have been with fishermen, and. I know I can speak for them. There are one or two question. which occur to me. Half a million pounds. is to be devoted to this purpose. It sounds rather, when that is said, as if it will be a case of first come, first served. I should like to remind the noble Lord that the Admiralty have not yet released all the boats they have taken from the fishing fleet, and it stands to reason that it is the most useful boat they will be inclined to release last. Boats are taken for survey strictly in rotation as they arrive in home ports. The queue system prevails amongst boats as well as amongst human beings to-day! I should like some assurance that this will not be a case of first come, first served, and that the boats which may be released later and the men connected with them (who may have been released and are waiting for their boats) will receive due consideration.
Then the noble Lord talked about one-third of the cost of a boat. That is rather ambiguous. Does that refer to the valuation in 1939? A boat will cost £5,000 to-day which, in 1939, cost £2,100 or something like that. That is a point on which we ought to have some informa 12 tion. I will not reinforce what my noble friend has said about priority for equipment, but I should like to remind the noble Lord that a good deal of equipment comes from other countries. I believe that before the war most of our nets were made in France. That is a question which may require special consideration.

LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, before we part with this useful little Bill, which everyone supports, may I suggest to my noble friend Lord Huntingdon that the word "equipment" is unknown to fishermen? Their word is "gear." The use of the word does not matter in the Bill itself, but may I ask him to see that in any regulation or instructions issued to the fishing fleet the word "gear" is used, which fishermen will understand?

§ THE EARL OF HUNTINGDON
My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord, Lord Balfour of Inchrye, for his kind reception of this Bill, and to assure him that the questions he raised will certainly be drawn to the attention of my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture and passed on to the Board of Trade. As to the questions asked by the noble Lord, Lord Saltoun, perhaps I may answer his last question first. It will be one-third of the cost of the boat at present prices. In regard to the first-come-first-served point, we will naturally consider later applicants in the same way as early applicants. In fact, there is a provision in the Bill to extend the period during which this grant may be used in the event of people not being able to use their boats in the early years.

LORD SALTOUN
I was asking about the amounts. Will they be protected in that connexion?

§ THE EARL OF HUNTINGDON
Yes. The point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Strabolgi, will certainly receive our attention.