§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, SCOTTISH OFFICE (LORD STRATHCLYDE)My Lords, the purpose of this Scheme is to amend the Herring Industry (Grants for Fishing Vessels and Engines) (Amendment) Scheme, 1955, by raising from £12,000 to £15,000 the maximum amount of grant that may be given by the Herring Industry Board towards building a new fishing vessel. Its purpose is, therefore, similar to one of the purposes of the corresponding White Fish Amendment Scheme which has just been agreed to.
§ Moved, That the Herring Industry (Grants for Fishing Vessels and Engines) (Amendment) Scheme, 1956, reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday last, be approved.—(Lord Strathclyde.)
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, may I ask Her Majesty's Government whether. in the operation of this Scheme, they will give some attention to the war service in the late war of some of the applicants? During the operation of what I think must 105 be the great grandfather of this instrument at the end of the war, I was rather shocked to find that two men who had served in His Majesty's Fleet with distinction during the whole war, and were prepared to put down precisely the same proportionate price, were refused a grant to build a herring drifter, while their neighbour, who had been fishing all during the war, was given a grant. Nobody makes a fortune serving in Her Majesty's Fleet, and a man may well make a fortune if he has successful fishing during the course of the war. Whilst these considerations must have lost force in the eleven years since the war ended, I still think that they may be operative, and I should like an assurance from the noble Lord about this matter.
§ LORD STRATHCLYDEMy Lords, I will take note of what the noble Lord has said, but the matter is surely one for the Herring Industry Board to decide.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.