Sitting of 16 March 1936

Preamble
The House met at a Quarter before Three of the Clock, Mr. SPEAKER in the Chair.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.
Brighton Marine Palace and Pier Bill,
Read the Third time, and passed.
South Essex Waterworks Bill (King's Consent signified),
Bill read the Third time, and passed.
Great Orme Tramways Bill [Lords],
Imperial Continental Gas Association Bill [Lords],
Read a Second time, and committed.
Caledonian Power Bill (by Order),
Second Reading deferred till To-morrow.

ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.
  INDIA.

    GOVERNMENT AEROPLANES.
    Mr. DAYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India the number of pilots and mechanics that have been recruited and are at present in the employ of the Indian State Air Service, and particulars
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    of the personnel, stating the number that are Europeans or Indians and the type of machines used for this service?
    The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA (Mr. Butler): The only civil aeroplanes belonging to the Government of India are those obtained for the use of the Viceroy. There is no Indian State Air Service.
    Mr. DAY: Are they fitted with safety slots?
    Mr. BUTLER: The hon. Gentleman had better put that question down.

    UNITED PROVINCES (EDUCATION).
    Mr. RITSONasked the Under-Secretary of State for India how many educational establishments in the United Provinces have been closed down; and for what reasons and for what period?
    Mr. BUTLER: I have no information, but will inquire.

    "INDIA IN 1933–34."
    Mr. RITSONasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the publication entitled "India in 1933–34," authorised by the Secretary of State for India, contains attacks on the integrity and honesty of public men of repute; on what evidence these attacks are based; and whether the bias against the Congress contained in the introductory chapter and appearing in various parts of the book has the approval of the Secretary of State?
    Mr. BUTLER: "India in 1933–34" was published under the authority and the general approval of the Secretary of State, but as stated in the preface this approval does not necessarily extend to every particular expression of opinion in the book, which is of a descriptive character. So far as it includes statements of fact, I am not aware that any inaccuracy is suggested, but it deals with matters of public interest upon which varied opinions may legitimately be held.

    CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT ACT.
    Mr. DAVID GRENFELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the local Governments of India, before submitting their opinion on the Criminal Law Amendment Bill to the Government of India, consulted Indian Ministers in charge of transferred subjects in the Provinces, or whether the opinion submitted by local Governments to Delhi originate from the Governor and Members of the Executive Council?
    Mr. T. SMITHasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether any Minister in any Indian Province was consulted, directly or indirectly, by the Government of India on the Criminal Law Amendment Act; and, if so, in bow many Provinces, if any, the legislation had the support of Indian Ministers?
    Mr. BUTLER: The views expressed to the Government of India on the Criminal Law Amendment Act were the considered opinions of the various Provincial Governments. My Noble Friend sees no reason for inquiring into the means by which each Government arrived at its conclusion.
    Mr. GRENFELL: Is it possible that, in accordance with that answer, only the official elements in local Governments will be considered and not the representatives of the Indian people?
    Mr. BUTLER: This matter falls constitutionally within the sphere of the Governors in Council, and my right hon. Friend could not undertake to make inquiries as to Governors' decisions.
    Mr. T. WILLIAMS: Do local Governments who are responsible for proposals of this description ever take into consideration the opinions of Indian Ministers?
    Mr. BUTLER: I am afraid we must leave to the Governors in Council—I underline "in Council"—the manner in which they deal with these matters.

    NEWSPAPERS.
    Mr. D. GRENFELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for India the amount of subsidies granted to any journals published in India and the circulation of the journals in each case?
    Mr. T. SMITHasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the Government of India or the local Governments, directly or indirectly, subsidise any newspaper, or magazines, or news services; and for what reasons any such subsidies are given?
    Mr. BUTLER: Neither the Government of India nor local governments subsidise any newspapers, magazines or news services. They do, however, subscribe to certain news agencies on a commercial basis for the supply of news telegrams to various Departments and officers. In one instance they pay a news agency for transmitting overseas news of Government importance outside the scope of their ordinary service. They also purchase copies of certain newspapers and magazines, according to the requirements of the public service.
    Mr. GRENFELL: Will the hon. Gentleman explain in fuller detail the technical difference between subscribing and subsidising?
    Mr. BUTLER: Certain copies of certain newspapers are useful for the public service, and in these cases, for the reasons I have given, the Government of India purchase certain copies.
    Mr. H. G. WILLIAMS: Do not a great many Members of this House pay for news cuttings without subsidising the newspapers?

    MEERUT CONSPIRACY.
    Mr. D. GRENFELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for India how many of the men accused in the late Meerut conspiracy case have recently been arrested; and on what charge and upon whose information?
    Mr. BUTLER: I have no information as to the recent arrest of any of those accused in the Meerut conspiracy case.
    Mr. GRENFELL: Is it not the case that some of the men who were discharged after the Meerut trial have recently been arrested?
    Mr. BUTLER: It depends upon what the hon. Member regards as recently. If he desires it, I will give him information as to recent arrests.
    Mr. GRENFELL: I meant subsequent to the release of persons who had been serving their sentences.
    Mr. BUTLER: In that case I will endeavour to get the information desired by the hon. Member.

    "COMMUNISM."
    Mr. WOODSasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether copies of the book entitled "Communism," by Professor H. J. Laski, Professor of Political Science, London University, are banned throughout India or only in certain provinces; whether he is aware that copies were seized by the police in a recent raid; and whether the possession of a copy of this book is an offence in any province of India?
    Mr. BUTLER: I have no information as to any action taken in India regarding this book, but will inquire if the hon. Member desires me to do so.

    LABOUR CONDITIONS (WOMEN SUPERVISORS).
    Mr. GRENFELL (fo Mr. MORGAN JONES)asked the Under-Secretary of State for India what steps have been taken to carry out the recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Labour in India with regard to women's labour, and especially the recommendations regarding the appointment of women supervisors?
    Mr. BUTLER: In respect of recommendations for Government initiative, the answer will be found in the latest report of the action taken by the Central and Provincial Governments in India on the recommendations of the Whitley Commission. I have caused one copy of this to be placed in the Library and another is being sent to the hon. Member. Action taken on recommendations such as that concerning women supervisors in which the initiative lies with authorities other than the Government is not given in the Progress Report. I will
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    ask the Government of India what information they have on the subject.

    NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE.
    Mr. GRENFELL (for Mr. MORGAN JONES)asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he will bring to the attention of the Viceroy the schemes which have from time to time been draw up as regards economic development in the North-West Frontier Province of India; and whether he will recommend to him the expenditure of money on schemes such as these and on the development of medical services, with a view to bringing about a diminution in unrest and violence through increased economic prosperity and contentment?
    Mr. BUTLER: The hon. Member may rest assured that both the Government of India and the Provincial Government are already fully alive to the importance of the economic and medical aspects of the administration in the North-West Frontier Province, to which they are paying special attention.

    OUTER MONGOLIA.
    Mr. H. G. WILLIAMSasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to whom a British subject should apply for a passport visa for the purpose of visiting Outer Mongolia?
    The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Viscount Cranborne): As far as I am aware, permission to enter Outer Mongolia could only be obtained by application to the authorities at Urga.

    GERMANY AND LOCARNO TREATY.
    Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what sanctions concerning Germany were asked for by the French Government; and did they include the withdrawal of ambassadors from Berlin?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: As the right hon. and gallant Gentleman will be aware, the action of the French and Belgian Governments with regard to the recent breach of the Treaty of Locarno by Germany has been to bring the matter to the notice of the Council of the League. I am afraid that I cannot say anything further at the moment.
    Colonel WEDGWOOD: Are we to understand from that reply that no definite sanctions have been asked for by the French Government from the British Government, prior to approaching the Council of the League?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I am afraid the right hon. and gallant Gentleman must understand only what is in the answer.
    Mr. LEWISasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any further statement to make as to the negotiations with those countries which were parties to the Locarno Treaty?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: Discussions are still in progress, and I am not yet in a position to make any statement?
    Mr. COCKSasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the British Government has ascertained, or will ascertain, whether the German Government is prepared to include Russia among the States with which it is ready to conclude a pact of non-aggression?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I would refer the hon. Member to the terms of the German Government's memorandum of 7th March, a translation of which was published in Command Paper No. 5118.
    Mr. COCKS: In view of the fact that last summer the then Foreign Secretary stated that the British Government assumed that Germany was prepared to conclude such a pact with Russia, and seeing that doubt has recently been cast on that, will the British Government really try to find out whether Germany is prepared to do that?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: This appears to be primarily a question for the Soviet and German Governments.
    Mr. COCKS: Will the British Government find out from the German Government whether they are prepared to include Soviet Russia in a pact of nonaggression, seeing that the late Foreign Secretary stated that the British Government assumed that they were? Will the Noble Lord give me a reply? This is very important.
    Major-General Sir ALFRED KNOX: Is there any reason why the National Government should take the Soviet Government under its protection?
    Mr. SANDYSasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has obtained from the German Government any elucidation as to the meaning of the phrase, colonial equality of rights, contained in the last paragraph of the German memorandum of 7th March (Cmd. 5118)?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: No, Sir.
    Mr. SANDYS: Does my Noble Friend recognise the importance of finding out as quickly as possible how far the German request for equality of colonial rights is compatible with the policy recently announced by the Colonial Secretary to the effect that Great Britain had no intention of transferring mandated territories to any other Power?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: This will naturally be a matter for suitable inquiry when and if the appropriate moment arrives.
    Commander LOCKER - LAMPSON: Will the Under-Secretary see that no minorities come under German rule until the Germans have treated their own minority properly?
    Commander LOCKER-LAMPSONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has noticed Herr Hitler's allegation, in excuse of his breach of the Locarno Agreement, that it was already broken by the pact entered into between the Soviet and France; and whether, as Herr Hitler's breach included the entry into a demilitarised zone alongside Belgian territory and the Belgian Government had not completed any pact with the Soviet, he will protest against this encroachment at any rate; and what action he intends to take?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend that the aspects of the present situation raised in his question have not escaped the notice of His Majesty's Government. The breach by Germany of the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles relating to the Demilitarised Zone and of Article 4 of the Treaty of Locarno is, as my hon. and gallant Friend knows, at present under consideration by the Council of the League of Nations. I cannot at present make any further statement on this matter.
    Mr. LEACH: Is it not possible for any signatory of the Locarno Treaty to leave the obligations under that Treaty by merely giving notice?
    Mr. THURTLEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether in any negotiations for a pact of peace with Germany to ensure stability in Europe, the Government will have regard to the necessity of obtaining from Germany assurances regarding her pacific intentions towards both Russia and Austria?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I cannot add anything with regard to such negotiations to what my right hon. Friend said in the course of his statement in the House last Monday.
    Mr. THURTLE: May I take it that His Majesty's Government are alive to the necessity of seeing that peace in Europe is ensured both in the east as well as in the west?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: His Majesty's Government are alive to all considerations arising out of the matter.

    ITALY AND ABYSSINIA.
    Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what has now been done concerning the bombing of the British ambulance by Italian airmen?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: Since the statement which I made on this subject on Monday last, the Italian Government have communicated a written reply to the representations made by His Majesty's Ambassador in Rome, a telegraphic summary of which has been communicated by Sir Eric Drummond to my right hon. Friend. So far as can be judged from this summary, the Italian Government admit the bombing on 4th March of an encampment furnished with at least one Red Cross sign, but claim that this bombing was in retaliation for the opening of fire upon the aircraft both on 3rd March and on 4th March. It is claimed that the Italian aircraft were fired on yet again on 5th March from the same locality, but the summary does not show that the Italians admit having bombed the encampment again on that day. The Italian note apparently states that the coincidence of the locality and of the
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    facts permits the identification of this alleged incident with that of which His Majesty's Government had complained. As to this I can only say that my right hon. Friend has noticed considerable discrepancies between the account given in the Italian communication and the report previously communicated by the leader of the British Red Cross unit concerned, particularly as regards the number of lorries and of Red Cross insignia as well as the location of the encampment. The Italian official statement does not apparently specify who is supposed to have fired on the aircraft, but the Italian Press of 12th March explain that it was done by at least a thousand armed men in khaki uniform who emerged from the tents on the approach of the aircraft. Dr. Melly has already denied that there was any firing upon Italian aircraft from the neighbourhood of his camp, but further detailed information is being sought from him. The right hon. and gallant Gentleman may he assured that His Majesty's Government will pursue this matter with the utmost energy with the Italian Government as soon as my right hon. Friend has obtained Dr. Melly's further comments.
    Colonel WEDGWOOD: Apart altogether from what His Majesty's Government propose to do in the future, may we understand that a claim for damages will be made, and that, if it is not met, His Majesty's Ambassador in Rome will be withdrawn?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I should like to have notice of that question.
    Mr. LEWISasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any further statement to make on the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: My hon. Friend will recall that as a result of the discussions held at Geneva early this month, a message was addressed by the Committee of Thirteen to the Italian and Ethiopian Governments appealing for the immediate opening of negotiations in the framework of the League of Nations and the spirit of the Covenant with a view to the prompt cessation of hostilities and the definite restoration of peace. The message added that the Committee of Thirteen would neet on 10th March to

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    take cognisance of the replies of the two Governments, both of whom have since expressed their readiness, in principle, to take part in negotiations. Owing, however, to the discussions arising out of the recent action of the German Government, it has proved necessary to postpone temporarily the meeting of the Committee of Thirteen, which will however take place at the earliest practicable moment.

    FOREIGN POLICY (FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS).
    Lieut. - Commander FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he proposes to make a general statement, such as was made by his predecessor, on British foreign policy; and, if so, will he devote special attention in it to the Far East, and the effect of Japanese foreign policy upon our interests in China and elsewhere, in view of the public anxiety felt on that score?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: The hon. and gallant Member's suggestion will certainly be borne in mind, but I am not in a position at present to say when an opportune moment will occur for a discussion of Far Eastern affairs.
    Mr. DAY: Will the Noble Lord, in making the statement, deal with the question of extra-territoriality?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I think that is covered by my answer.

    BRAZIL (DEPORTATIONS).
    Lieut. - Commander FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why Lady Hastings, Lady Keith Cameron, and Mr. R. G. Freeman have been deported from Brazil?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: My right hon. Friend has been in communication with His Majesty's Ambassador in Rio de Janeiro, who is forwarding a full report.

    FOREIGN OFFICE DOCUMENTS.
    Lieut. - Commander FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it is the practice in the Foreign Office to number each copy of secret or confidential documents printed for circulation?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: I do not think that it would be in the public interest to give details of the kind asked for, but I can assure the hon. awl gallant Member that my right hon. Friend's Department take the fullest precautions with regard to such documents.

    TREATY OBLIGATIONS.
    Mr. MARKHAMasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will give a list of all treaties and undertakings with foreign Powers under which Great Britain is bound to supply armed assistance in certain eventualities?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: The list of international agreements which might in certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions being fulfilled, involve the use by this country of its armed forces, is as follows:

    1. The Covenant of the League of Nations.

    2. The Treaty of Locarno, 1925.

    3. The Straits Convention of Lausanne, 1923.

    4. The Treaties of Alliance with Portugal dating back to 1373.

    5. The Treaty of the 20th October, 1921, respecting the non-fortification and neutralisation of the Aland Islands.

    6. The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of Alliance of 1930, which entered into force on 3rd October, 1932.

    There are also various treaty engagements with the Arab rulers of the Persian Gulf under which His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom have undertaken liabilities of varying extent for the protection of the territories concerned.

    EGYPT.
    Mr. THURTLEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any statement to make regarding the progress of the negotiations with the Egyptian Government?
    Viscount CRANBORNE: The preliminary conversations with a view to negotiations for an Anglo-Egyptian settlement were formally opened in Cairo on 2nd March They were resumed

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    on 9th March, when the British Delegation put forward proposals which are now being studied by the Egyptian Delegation. The next meeting is due to take place to-day.

    NAVAL AND MILITARY PENSIONS AND GRANTS.
    Mr. McGOVERNasked the Minister of Pensions the total number of blind and insane persons on pension in Great Britain from the result of the War of 1914–18?
    Sir JAMES BLINDELL (Lord of the Treasury): I have been asked to reply. I am informed that the number of pensions in payment in respect of eye affections assessed at 100 per cent, is approximately, 1,990. The number of pensioners certified as of unsound mind in mental institutions is about 5,990.
    Mr. McGOVERNasked the Minister of Pensions the number of persons who have applied for reconsideration of their pension claims for each year since January, 1920; and how many have been granted pensions for each year?
    Sir J. BLINDELL: I understand that the records of the Ministry do not enable these particulars to be given.
    Mr. McGOVERN: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that there is great dissatisfaction among a large number of ex-service men who have been turned down for pension awards; and that outside medical authorities have certified many of them as suffering from disability while Departmental medical men have certified that they are not suffering from any disability; and is it proposed to set up any further local medical authority that would give greater consideration to these ex-service men?
    Sir J. BLINDELL: I will pass on that question to my hon. Friend.

  TRADE AND COMMERCE.

    PALESTINE (LEVANT FAIR).
    Major PROCTERasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether, in view of the recent increase in the value of trade with Palestine, he will consider the desirability of giving official support to the despatch of a
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    small trade mission to Palestine during the currency of the Levant Fair this spring in order to examine and promote the openings for further British trade with the Near East?
    Mr. MORGANasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that several trade delegations from foreign countries officially participating in the forthcoming Levant Fair will be visiting Palestine during the period that the fair is open; and whether it is proposed to send any similar delegation from Great Britain, in view of the value to this country of the increasing markets in Palestine and the Near East generally?
    Captain EUAN WALLACE (Secretary, Overseas Trade Department): I have no information regarding trade delegations from foreign countries visiting Palestine during the Levant Fair, nor has any industry in this country intimated to the Department of Overseas Trade their intention to send a trade mission. Should, however, representatives of United Kingdom industries decide to do so, I will certainly arrange for the Commercial Agent at Haifa of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to afford them all possible assistance.

    FRANCE (SALMON IMPORTS).
    Sir DOUGLAS THOMSONasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether he has any information regarding an alteration in the application by the French Government of the quota on imported salmon; and whether this quota is now to include, not only fresh salmon, but also frozen salmon?
    Captain WALLACE: According to my information, the quota restrictions on the importation of fresh salmon, including frozen salmon and salmon imported on ice, lapsed on 31st December, 1935.
    Sir D. THOMSONasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether he is aware that the French Government charges duty on the gross weight of a box of imported fresh salmon; and whether he will make representations to the French Government, in view of the fact that salmon sent from Aberdeen require much more ice and

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    packing than salmon sent from London, and pay accordingly a higher duty per pound of salmon?
    Captain WALLACE: The French customs duty on salmon, as on imports generally, is based on the gross weight unless the rate of duty under the minimum tariff exceeds 150 francs per 100 kilos. I understand, however, that, in the case of fish imported in bulk on ice, the ice is not included in the dutiable weight. Where the weight of ice cannot be satisfactorily determined, a deduction of 5 per cent. of the gross weight is allowed. I fear that no useful purpose would be served by making representations against a long-established practice.

    GREECE (DIESEL OIL ENGINES).
    Mr. LIDDALLasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the import into Greece of British Diesel oil engines is prohibited; and whether he will take the necessary steps to have this matter adjusted?
    Captain WALLACE: The import of Diesel oil engines into Greece is not actually prohibited, but is allowed only under a system of special permits, the operation of which has resulted in severe restrictions on the import of such engines from the United Kingdom. Repeated representations have been made to the Greek Government on the subject and these representations will be continued.

    LATVIA.
    Mr. LIDDALLasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that in the case of goods duly licensed for import into Latvia the necessary permit for sterling exchange to pay for these goods is frequently withheld, thus nullifying the effect of the licence and evading the terms of the trade agreement; and whether he will take steps to have this matter rectified?
    Captain WALLACE: In the case of goods duly licensed before their arrival in Latvia, I understand that the authorities release exchange for imports from this country with reasonable promptitude on application being made by the importer. I shall, however, be glad to make inquiries into any difficulties of which my hon. Friend can give me information.

    TRADE AGREEMENTS.
    Mr. LIDDALLasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in concluding any trade agreements with foreign countries in future, he will insert a clause providing that the sterling exchange made available by the exports of goods to this country will be applied in the first instance to liquidating debts in respect of imports from the United Kingdom?
    Captain WALLACE: In negotiating trade agreements with foreign countries His Majesty's Government will continue to bear in mind the difficulties caused by exchange restrictions, with a view to securing the best arrangements possible for United Kingdom trade.

    BACON.
    Mr. J. HALLasked the Minister of Agriculture what pubic bodies, if any, have made representations to him in respect of the refusal of the Bacon Development Board to permit a bacon factory to be established in the Bridgwater district; and what action he proposes to take in the matter?
    The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Mr. Elliot): I have received representations on this subject from the Bridgwater Town Council, and I have invited their attention to the provisions of the Bacon Development Scheme, relating to the settlement of such disputes by arbitration.
    Mr. HALLasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will state, in respect of factories licensed by the Bacon Development Board, the number which are controlled by private companies and the number which are controlled on a cooperative basis?
    Mr. ELLIOT: I am informed by the Bacon Development Board that 736 producers' licences are at present in force under the Bacon Development Scheme. Of these, 130 are held by co-operative concerns, one by a local authority and 605 by private concerns.

    TELEPHONE SERVICE (AUTOMATIC SYSTEM, LONDON).
    Mr. DAYasked the Postmaster-General the total cost of installing the

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    automatic system in the telephone exchanges in the London telephone area to the latest convenient date, including exchange equipment and external plant costs; and whether the officials of his Department report the satisfactory working of this system?
    The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Major Tryon): The total capital expenditure, exclusive of line plant costs, up to 31st March, 1935, was about £15,250,000. I am sorry that it is not practicable to separate the cost of line plant provided for automatic and manual exchanges. The answer to the latter part of the question is in the affirmative.
    Mr. DAY: Can the right hon. Gentleman say when all the manual exchanges in London will be converted to the automatic system?
    Major TRYON: I could not give that information without notice; it does not arise out of the question on the Paper.

  BROADCASTING.

    ULLSWATER COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
    Mr. HALL-CAINEasked the Postmaster-General whether he can now make any statement on the Ullswater Broadcasting Report and the policy of the Government in relation to its recommendations?
    Major TRYON: Copies of the report of the Broadcasting Committee will be available this evening. The recommendations of the Committee are still under consideration, and I am not yet in a position to make any statement as to the policy of the Government in regard to them. I should like, however, to take the opportunity of expressing the gratitude of the Government to Lord Ullswater and the members of the Committee for the comprehensive review of the broadcasting service which they have undertaken.
    Mr. HALL-CAINE: Will an opportunity be given to debate the whole question before the new charter is put into force?
    Major TRYON: It is not part of my duty to arrange these matters, but I am sure there will be ample opportunity for discussion long before the charter expires at the end of the year.

    WIRELESS LICENCE CHARGE.
    Mr. McENTEEasked the Postmaster-General whether in view of the large increase in the number of persons holding wireless licences and of the consequent increase in revenue, he will give favourable consideration to a reduction in the charge for such licences?
    Major TRYON: This is a matter which must depend upon the decisions to be taken on the recommendations of the Broadcasting Committee.
    Captain PLUGGE: Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that many foreign countries charge more than we do, in one case as much as £2, for licence fees, and will he oppose any motion to reduce this fee, which would cripple the British broadcasting service and jeopardise the prestige of the British broadcasting service in Europe?
    Major TRYON: The suggestion did not come from me. If my hon. and gallant Friend waits for the report, he will see what is in it.
    Mr. McENTEE: In view of the fact that recent improvements have been in the main to the advantage of the business community, will not the right hon. Gentleman consider some suggestion to spread over the ordinary people some of the advantages of the increased receipts of the Post Office?
    Major TRYON: The question was about the British Broadcasting Corporation.
    Mr. GEORGE GRIFFITHS: Will the Minister reconsider his answer as there are a number of people who have no money for any other entertainment and they would like it to be a 5s. licence instead of 10s.?
    Major TRYON: The position of the country on the whole is very much better than it was two or three years ago.

    GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS (SMOKELESS FUEL).
    Mr. DAVID ADAMSasked the First Commissioner of Works whether he is aware that the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research and the leading municipalities of the United Kingdom agree that coal-burning fires are the prime cause of atmospheric

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    pollution causing injury to the public health and public buildings, added risks to aviation and other disabilities; why almost all the offices and departments under his control in London are heated with raw coal; and whether he will introduce and gradually extend the use of smokeless fuel as in the Lobbies of this House?
    The FIRST COMMISSIONER of WORKS (Mr. Ormsby-Gore): Yes, Sir. I am aware of the causes and effects of atmospheric pollution, but I understand that there is a ready market for all the present production of smokeless fuel suitable for open fireplaces; the total sale would not be increased by any order I might give and the question of atmospheric pollution would not be affected. About two-thirds of the accommodation under my control in London is heated by plants consuming smokeless fuel of various kinds: for open fireplaces suitable smokeless fuel is used wherever local circumstances make it possible without unreasonable increase of cost. Apart from the fact that there was some dissatisfaction when smokeless fuel was used in the Lobby fires some time ago, I should not be justified at present prices in using smokeless fuel in the fireplaces of this House.
    Mr. ADAMS: The smokeless fuel consumed in the Lobbies of the House is coke. If there is no complaint of its use, could it not be extended to all Departments?
    Mr. ORMSBY-GORE: During a great part of the last Parliament coalite was used, and I received a very large number of representations from Members of the House asking me to go back to coal.
    Mr. CROSSLEY: Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that a great many civil servants are continually complaining of sore eyes?
    Mr. ADAMS: The House is using smokeless fuel, coke. I am suggesting that the principle should be extended to other Government Departments.
    Mr. ORMSBY-GORE: I have explained that in two-thirds of them smokeless fuel is used.
    Mr. ADAMS: Why not in the balance?
    Mr. ORMSBY-GORE: Because I have had so many objections and requests for coal.

    EXETER ASSIZES.
    Mr. LAMBERTasked the Attorney-General whether he proposes to take steps by legislation or otherwise to effect the removal of the assize from the city of Exeter?
    The ATTORNEY-GENERAL (Sir Thomas Inskip): As a result of the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Despatch of Business at Common Law, the Lord Chancellor has appointed a Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Finlay,
    "to review the present distribution of assize facilities and report whether, due regard being paid to t he recommendation of the Peel Commission that the county should be retained as the judicial unit, any further town should lie added to those which are already visited, or any town at present visited should be omitted."
    I am unwilling to make any statement which could in any way prejudge the matters on which the Committee are to report, but I am unaware at the moment of any proposal that Exeter should cease to be an assize town.
    Mr. LAMBERT: Can changes take place without legislation?
    The ATTORNEY-GENERAL: It depends on the extent of the changes. There are powers given to the Lord Chancellor, but I should like notice if my right hon. Friend has any particular changes in mind.

    DEFENCE.
    Mr. GRAHAM WHITEasked the Prime Minister whether His Majesty's Government have obtained the views of the Royal Commission on the Private Manufacture of Arms with regard to proposals set out in paragraphs 53 and 54 of the statement relating to Defence (Cmd. 5107)?
    The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Baldwin): The answer is in the negative.

  ROYAL NAVY.

    MEDITERRANEAN FLEET.
    Mr. BOOTHBYasked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the present international situation, His Majesty's Government will recall the Fleet from the Mediterranean?
    The PRIME MINISTER: I am not prepared to give any information about the disposition of His Majesty's forces.

    CAPITAL SHIPS (REPAIRS AND RECONSTRUCTION).
    Mr. GEORGE HALLasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the names of the capital ships of His Majesty's Navy which have undergone large repairs and reconstruction during

    Ship.

    First Cost of Ship.

    Large repairs and reconstruction.

    Year of completion.

    Cost.

    £

    £

    Malaya

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,945,709

    1929

    674,690

    In hand.

    976,963

    Estimated.

    1936 Navy Estimates.

    Iron Duke

    …

    …

    …

    …

    1,945,824

    1929

    281,959

    Warspite

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,524,148

    1931

    63,648

    In hand.

    2,114,214

    Estimated.

    1936 Navy Estimates.

    Queen Elizabeth

    …

    …

    …

    2,473,103

    1930

    101,522

    1932

    67,201

    Resolution

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,449,680

    1930

    140,160

    Benbow

    …

    …

    …

    …

    1,941,448

    1930

    92,239

    Valiant

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,537,037

    1931

    794,920

    Revenge

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,406,368

    1929

    366,437

    1931

    147,149

    Nelson

    …

    …

    …

    …

    6,034,593

    1931

    83,781

    Hood

    …

    …

    …

    …

    5,698,946

    1931

    728,377

    Royal Sovereign

    …

    …

    …

    2,570,504

    1932

    260,629

    Renown

    …

    …

    …

    …

    3,117,204

    1932

    221,549

    Barham

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,470,113

    1934

    1,085,564

    Ramillies

    …

    …

    …

    …

    3,295,810

    1934

    535,349

    Royal Oak

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,468,269

    In hand.

    998,669

    Estimated.

    1936 Navy Estimates.

    Repulse

    …

    …

    …

    …

    2,829,087

    In hand.

    1,474,924

    Estimated.

    1936 Navy Estimates.

    FLEET EXERCISES.
    Mr. G. HALLasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the number of days spent at sea and in carrying out exercises, respectively, by each of the capital ships of His Majesty's Navy during each of the last five years?
    Mr. LINDSAY: I regret that the information asked for could not be obtained without an inordinate amount of work, which would not be justified. The figures for 1934, however, will be found in an answer given to the hon. Member for East Willesden (Mr. D. G. Somerville)
    the past seven years; the first cost of each ship; and the total cost of repair and alteration in each case?
    The CIVIL LORD of the ADMIRALTY (Mr. Kenneth Lindsay): As the information asked for by the hon. Member is somewhat lengthy, I will, with his permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
    Following is the information:
    on 3rd April, 1935, a copy of which I am sending to the hon. Member.

    RECRUITS.
    Mr. G. HALLasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty the number of recruits accepted for service in the Royal Navy in each of the years 1924 to 1935, inclusive; and will he state in each case the percentage of recruits finally approved to the number served with notice papers?
    Mr. LINDSAY: As the information asked for by the hon. Member is some-

    23
    what lengthy, I will with his permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
    Following is the information:

    Period (1st April-31st March inclusive).

    Number of recruits required and accepted for service.

    Percentage of recruits entered of those who applied to Recruiting Staff Officers.

    1924–25

    7,427

    13·32

    1925–26

    7,233

    12·88

    1926–27

    7,628

    10·84

    1927–28

    4,646

    7·89

    1928–29

    3,139

    6·25

    1929–30

    2,658

    5·76

    1930–31

    2,652

    5·31

    1931–32

    3,098

    5·75

    1932–33

    4,093

    7·01

    1933–34

    6,360

    11·51

    1934–35

    7,464

    13·16

    FOOD SUPPLY.
    Mr. ELLIS SMITHasked the Prime Minister whether he will consider the report prepared by Sir John Boyd Orr, and take steps to set up a ministry for food supply and organise a national distribution of food?
    The PRIME MINISTER: The report is being referred by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health to the Advisory Committee on Nutrition for examination. The answer to the last part of the question is in the negative.

  UNEMPLOYMENT.

    BENEFIT AND ALLOWANCES.
    Mr. DENVILLEasked the Minister of Labour whether he will take steps to ascertain what is the present approximate amount paid out per annum in unemployment insurance payments and unemployment assistance to persons whose previous employment was that of actor, actress, stage hand, variety artist, or musician?
    The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of LABOUR (Lieut.-Colonel Muirhead): The approximate amount paid out per annum in unemployment benefit and unemployment allowances to the classes of persons referred
    24
    to could not be ascertained without an expensive inquiry which my right hon. Friend would not feel justified in authorising.
    Mr. DENVILLE: Will the hon. and gallant Gentleman accept the figures of the Association connected with these people, which are 23,000 out of work at a cost of over £1,000,000 to the State? In view of the small amount coming from the Entertainments Duty, will he favourably consider representations with a view to its abolition?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: I could not accept the hon. Member's figures off-hand.

    ADMINISTRATION (COSTS).
    Mr. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Labour the percentage costs of administration in respect of unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: Owing to the various differences between the two schemes the percentage costs of administration in respect of unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance cannot be given on a strictly comparable basis. I am, however, circulating a table which gives these costs for the current financial year together with other particulars.
    Following is the table:

    £ millions (approximately).

    1. Estimated Contribution Income of the Insurance Account of the Unemployment Fund

    65¾

    2. Estimated expenditure in respect of Benefit

    42¾

    3. Estimated expenditure in respect of Unemployment Allowances (including Supplementary Allowances)

    42½

    4. Estimated cost of administration of the Unemployment Insurance Scheme

    4½

    5. Estimated cost of administration of the Unemployment Assistance Scheme

    4¼

    MANBY AERODROME.
    Mr. MARKLEWasked the Minister of Labour whether his attention has been called to the discharge of 50 local labourers from work on the construction

    25
    of the Manby, Lincs., aerodrome and their immediate substitution by 50 Irish immigrants; and whether he will consider what steps he may advise his conciliation officers to take, with a view to abating the discontent among local workmen arising out of the incident?
    Lieut.-Colonel HENEAGEasked the Minister of Labour whether his attention has been called to the fact that local labour is being discharged at the construction works at Manby aerodrome, Lincolnshire, and Irish labourers taken on; and whether he will take the necessary action?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: My information is that the contractors engaged on the construction of this aerodrome discharged 50 local labourers on 7th March because of shortage of work, but that they were not replaced by other men. I am, however, having further inquiry made.

    SPECIAL AREAS (New INDUSTRIES).
    Mr. W. JOSEPH STEWARTasked the Minister of Labour what steps are being taken to induce firms to commence new industries in the Special Areas, since the Board of Trade survey of industrial development for 1934 points out that only seven new factories were opened, and two existing ones extended, in the Special Areas during that year out of a total of 478 new factories and 144 extensions for the whole of the country?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: I would refer to the second report of the Commissioner for Special Areas (England and Wales) which has been presented to Parliament and the statements made during the Debate on 2nd March, and to the reply which my right hon. Friend gave on 10th March to the hon, Member for Aberdare (Mr. G. Hall), of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.
    Miss WARDasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will recommend the creation of a special fund for providing finance for the establishment of industries in the Special Areas as suggested by Mr. Malcolm Stewart?
    The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. W. S. Morrison): I cannot add at present to the reply given to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Penrith (Captain Dower) on 20th February.
    Miss WARD: In view of the fact that the matter is considered urgent and that the proposal was put before the Government as long ago as last July, may I ask whether it will be very long before the Government come to a decision on the matter?
    Mr. MORRISON: The reply to which I have referred my hon. Friend says that the matter is under consideration, and the state of affairs has not changed since that reply was given on 20th February.
    Miss WARD: Will the hon. Member be kind enough to refer to the answer given by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour to Question 53?

    ABERDEEN AND DUNDEE.
    Mr. GARRO-JONESasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that bordering on many Scottish burghs scheduled for preference in the allocation of Government contract, there are other burghs in which depressed conditions are just as acute as in the scheduled burghs, and that the comparative position of Aberdeen and Dundee is a case in point; and whether he can give an assurance that the principle of preference shall not be applied in such cases to the detriment of the unscheduled area?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: All areas, in which the rate of unemployment is as stated in the reply which I gave to the question put by the hon. Member for Don Valley on 9th March (Mr. T. Williams), are included in the list of areas to which the preference applies. The rate of unemployment among men of 18 years and over (averaged over 12 months) is 19.9 per cent. in Aberdeen, as compared with 28.8 per cent, in Dundee.
    Mr. GARRO-JONES: Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that my question takes full account of that reply? What I want to ascertain is whether, in collateral circumstances which may bring an area not scheduled into the category of districts which are as equally depressed as those which are scheduled, he will not apply his principle to the detriment of the unscheduled area?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: The particular conditions on which areas are scheduled have already been made known in this House. The list of scheduled

    27
    depressed areas is capable of adjustment from time to time, but for the moment no other conditions apply.
    Mr. GARRO-JONES: Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman aware—to give one specific example—that the weekly distribution of Poor Law benefit in Aberdeen is greater than in Dundee and that that is a criterion equally valuable as an indication of the degree of distress existent there; and is he further aware that his answer takes no account whatever of the terms of my question, but deals with something that we already know?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: I have already said that the conditions under which areas are scheduled as depressed have already been made known, and those are the conditions which exist at the present time. No doubt the particular conditions to which the hon. Member refers are what he says, but they do not happen to be the conditions under which a scheduled area is depressed.
    Mr. JOHNSTON: Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that there are areas now, particularly in Scotland, where the rate of unemployment is very much higher than that in the scheduled areas, and that under the non-scheduled areas they are actually forbidden to give preference?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: If the right hon. Gentleman will bring any cases to my notice where certain areas are not included in the list and are qualified under the conditions that have been laid down, I shall be pleased to consider them.
    Mr. GARRO-JONES: In view of the fact that the answer of the Minister completely ignores the matter in my question, I beg to give notice that I shall raise this matter on the Adjournment.

    MEANS TEST.
    Mr. McGOVERN (for Mr. STEPHEN)asked the Minister of Labour how many reports have been received by him from the Unemployment Assistance Board regarding the modification of the means test; and whether he proposes to submit such reports to this House for the information of Members and, if so, when he will be in a position to do so?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: As regards the first part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to a similar question put by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, East (Mr. Mander) on 12th March. 1936, and as regards the second part to the reply to the question put by the hon. Member for Birkenhead, East (Mr. White) on 5th December, 1935.
    Mr. McGOVERN: Can we have a reply which does not refer to previous answers?
    Lieut.-Colonel MUIRHEAD: It is the normal procedure to refer an hon. Member to answers which have been given to previous questions, and to furnish copies of those replies.

    GRAIN AND OIL SUPPLIES (STORAGE).
    Mr. SANDYSasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in order to reduce the magnitude of essential imports in time of war, His Majesty's Government are taking steps to provide facilities for storing large supplies of grain and oil in this country?
    The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of TRADE (Dr. Burgin): My hon. Friend may rest assured that questions of this character receive due consideration.
    Mr. SANDYS: Can my hon. Friend say whether any actual construction work has been begun in this connection?
    Dr. BURGIN: The matter with regard to oil was dealt with fully in an answer given by the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Paisley (Mr. Maclay) on 26th February, and with regard to grain, which is a Board of Trade responsibility, the storage facilities are adequate.
    Mr. SANDYS: Can my hon. Friend assure us that, in view of the present shortage of naval ships, his Department will do all they can in this way to limit as far as possible all calls upon the Navy in time of war for convoy purposes?

  PUBLIC HEALTH.

    NURSES (REGULATIONS).
    Mr. LEWISasked the Minister of Health whether he will give the British

    29
    Hospitals Association an opportunity of expressing their opinion upon the new regulations drafted by the General Nursing Council for England and Wales, regarding a proposed educational standard for nurses before he gives his formal approval of such regulations?
    The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of HEALTH (Mr. Shakespeare): Yes, Sir. My right hon. Friend has already done so and he is in communication with the association on the matter.

    MATERNAL MORTALITY.
    Mr. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Health the number of deaths in childbirth for 1935; and the number of deaths arising out of childbirth for 1935?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: This information is not yet available, but I will send the hon. Member the figures as soon as they are ready.

    INFECTIOUS DISEASE (STANLEY, COUNTY DURHAM).
    Mr. DAVID ADAMSasked the Minister of Health whether he is aware of the high incidence of infectious disease in the Stanley, county Durham, area, and that this is declared by members of the local authority to be due to the low nutritional standards of the area; and whether he will investigate this situation?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: My right hon. Friend is aware of this outbreak; the situation has been under close investigation for some time past, and he is now awaiting a report by the county medical officer of health.

    OVERCROWDING (SURVEYS).
    Mr. MAXTONasked the Minister of Health how many reports on the state of overcrowding in England and Wales he has now received; what percentage of the total number is still to come; and whether he will publish the facts now in his hands?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: Local authorities are required to submit the results of their surveys by 1st June. Up to the present my right hon. Friend has received reports from 59 authorities out of a total of 1,559. These reports cover 202,801 dwellings of which 6,099 are overcrowded I will send the hon. Member the particulars relating to each authority.
    Mr. THORNE: Is it not a fact that all the surveys that have gone on in England should have been in the office of the hon. Gentleman?
    Mr. MAXTON: Is the hon. Gentleman satisfied with having received only 59 out of some thousands; is he satisfied with that figure?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: Oh, yes, the progress is very substantial, and we have no reason to anticipate any default.

    MILK.
    Mr. de ROTHSCHILDasked the Minister of Health whether he will reconsider the proposal to lower the cleanliness standard of tuberculin-tested milk by substituting the methylene blue test for the plate count for bacteria?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: My right hon. Friend is advised that the standard of cleanliness which it is proposed to apply to tuberculin tested milk by means of the methylene blue test is substantially the same as that applied at present by the plate count, and that the new test gives more reliable and consistent results. My right hon. Friend does not at present see any reason for abandoning it, but it is not proposed to bring it into operation until next year and he will be prepared to make any adjustments in the method of carrying it out which experience may show to be desirable.
    Mr. de ROTHSCHILDasked the Minister of Health whether in view of the health value of pure clean raw milk, and in view of the high standard of cleanliness of tuberculin-tested milk, he will reconsider the proposal to, institute a separate grade of tuberculin-tested pasteurised milk, in order not to restrict the market for the highest grades of pure raw milk by fostering the idea that the safety of even tuberculin-tested milk would be enhanced by pasteurisation?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: My right hon. Friend is giving consideration to this matter in the preparation of the new Special Designations Order.
    Mr. JOHNSTONasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the report of the Medical Research Council for 1934 to 1935, just, issued, urging the importance of the consumption of more liquid milk by pre-school children and nursing mothers;

    31
    and whether he will consult with the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Minister of Agriculture with a view to immediate steps being taken to give effect to this recommendation?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: Yes, Sir. My right hon. Friend intends to give full consideration to this report in consultation with my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Minister of Agriculture.
    Mr. JOHNSTON: Can the hon. Gentleman give any indication when I could usefully put a question as to what results are likely to accrue from this consultation?
    Mr. SHAKESPEARE: I am afraid that I could not.

    NEWFOUNDLAND.
    Mr. McGOVERNasked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs when he proposes to ask this House to restore parliamentary government to Newfoundland?
    The SECRETARY of STATE for DOMINION AFFAIRS (Mr. Malcolm MacDonald): No, Sir. I would remind the hon. Member that the address presented to His Majesty by the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of Newfoundland to which effect was given by the Newfoundland Act, 1933, prayed for the suspension of the then existing form of Government in Newfoundland until such time as the Island might become self-supporting again.
    Mr. McGOVERN: Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether it is intended that this financial dictatorship should be of a permanent character, and does he not think that the time has arrived to put an end to this Fascist attempt in Newfoundland?
    Mr. MacDONALD: I think that I have answered both those supplementary questions in my answer.
    Mr. MAXTON: Does the answer of the Minister mean that no progress has been made towards making Newfoundland financially self-supporting under the Commissioner's Government?
    Mr. MacDONALD: On the contrary, the Commission is laying the foundation of her economic recovery.
    Mr. MAXTON: Does the Minister mean to tell me that after three years of autocratic power there, they are only now laying the foundation of economic recovery?

    HOUSE OF COMMONS (REFRESHMENT DEPARTMENT).
    Mr. DAYasked the hon. Member for Ipswich, as Chairman of the Kitchen Committee, whether, in view of the fact that matches manufactured in foreign countries are sold in the bars of the House of Commons, he will say if his committee experience any difficulty in obtaining for sale or use matches manufactured in the United Kingdom?
    Sir NICHOLAS GRATTAN-DOYLE: I have been asked to reply. The hon. Member has been misinformed. Only matches of British manufacture are sold or used in the Refreshment Department of this House, and the Kitchen Committee experience no difficulty whatever in securing an adequate supply.
    Mr. DAY: Will the hon. Gentleman inquire whether the staff bar comes under the management of the Kitchen Committee, and also whether these matches which were made in Czechoslovakia are sold by their authority?
    Sir N. GRATTAN-DOYLE: It is quite unnecessary; we have already made all the necessary inquiries.
    Mr. DAY: Can the hon. Gentleman say whether the matches supplied in the staff bar are made in Czechoslovakia or are British matches?

    IMPERIAL AIRWAYS, LIMITED,
    Mr. GARRO-JONESasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air what was the total amount paid in subsidies to Imperial Airways for each year since the payment of the first subsidy, and the grand total?
    The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for AIR (Sir Philip Sassoon): As the reply contains a number of figures, I will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
    Following is the reply:
    The amounts paid (including the contributions from Dominion and Colonial Governments) are as follow:

    Financial Year.

    Amount Paid.

    £

    1924

    131,520

    1925

    137,000

    1926

    172,480

    1927

    226,400

    1928

    230,600

    1929

    341,700

    1930

    390,250

    1931

    472,496

    1932

    575,250

    1933

    544,806

    1934

    567,954

    Grand Total to 31st March, 1935.

    £3,790,456

    Mr. GARRO-JONESasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air what are the types of the largest flying-boats now operated, and in process of construction, by Imperial Airways, Limited; how they are engined; their normal load of passengers and mails; and their range fully loaded?
    Sir P. SASSOON: The largest type now operated is the "Scipio," the largest under construction the "Empire," both being four-engined aircraft. The maximum total weights authorised are 32,500 lbs. and approximately 39,000 lbs. respectively. Loading and range vary according to the operating circumstances.

    ROYAL AIR FORCE.
    Mr. SANDYSasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air when it is anticipated that Great Britain will enjoy air parity with France, Germany, and Russia, respectively?
    Sir P. SASSOON: I would ask my hon. Friend to await the statement in regard to the expansion of the Royal Air Force which I hope to make during the Debate on Air Estimates.
    Mr. GRIFFITHS: Does the right hon. Gentleman think that we shall ever get parity while the Air Force are fed on margarine?

    ORDERS IN COUNCIL (COLONIES).
    Mr. de ROTHSCHILDasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is prepared to adopt, with regard to Orders in Council covering major policy affecting the Colonies, that provision of the India Act, 1935, which stipulates that every draft Order under that Act must be laid before Parliament?
    The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. J. H. Thomas): Orders in Council affecting the Colonies made under the provisions of any Statute are laid before Parliament in draft form if the Statute provides that they should be so laid. But I am unable to adopt that procedure in the case of Orders made in virtue of His Majesty's prerogative.
    Mr. de ROTHSCHILD: Will these Orders be laid on the Table of the House and, if so, will they be discussed?
    Mr. THOMAS: If they come under the provisions of the Statute, yes, not otherwise.

    KENYA (DEFENCE FORCE).
    Captain GUESTasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies (1) why he has disbanded the settlers defence force in Kenya Colony;
    (2) what is the difference in the constitution of the territorial organisation he has set up in. Kenya instead of the settlers defence force; and whether the new force is voluntary enlistment or compulsory?
    Mr. J. H. THOMAS: The Kenya Defence Force has not yet been disbanded nor has anything been set up in its place. I have agreed that the European man power of the Colony could most efficiently be utilised, and the general security of Kenya best be served, by replacing the defence force, which is not satisfactory from a military point of view, by a Territorial Force on a voluntary basis. It is however proposed to establish a reserve in which Europeans not in the Force or in the King's African Rifles Reserve of officers would be required to enrol. Legislation will be required to effect any change, and the unofficial community will have to be consulted.
    Captain GUESTasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why Lord Francis Scott and Major F. Cavendish Bentinck, the two elected members for Kenya Colony, who serve on the executive council of his Excellency the Governor of that Colony, have resigned; and whether their resignation is in any way connected with his instructions, issued a few days ago, to disband the Kenya settlers defence force and replace it by a different organization?
    Mr. THOMAS: My only information is contained in a telegram from Lord Francis Scott, in which he stated that he and Major Cavendish Bentinck had resigned from the executive council on the ground that the representatives of the European community had not been consulted prior to the publication of my suggestions regarding the Defence Force.
    Captain GUEST: May I ask the right hon. Gentleman to realise that the Commandant of the Kenya Defence Force, himself a distinguished soldier, was never informed of this programme and that his aide de camp was ignored also?

    SHALE-OIL COMPANIES.
    Mr. MATHERSasked the Secretary for Mines what was the amount of the relief given to shale-oil companies during the last year for which information is available through the exemption from Excise Duty of motor spirit, Diesel oil, and kerosene; and whether he is satisfied that the companies concerned are utilising this advantage to improve conditions and extend employment in this vital industry?
    The SECRETARY for MINES (Captain Crookshank): I am not able to state what duty would have been paid in a given year on hydrocarbons produced from indigenous shale if Excise Duties had been imposed to correspond with the import duties on petroleum products. Since 1931 there has been a marked improvement in employment and wages in the Scottish shale area, and I have no reason to think that there is any failure to take full advantage of the preference.
    Mr. MATHERS: In order that the employment position in this industry may not be worsened by any action the Government may take, may I ask the hon.
    36
    and gallant Member to draw the attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to this question, to whom it was originally addressed?
    Captain CROOKSHANK: Yes, but I think the hon. Member is under some misapprehension. There never were any countervailing Excise Duties.

    EDUCATION (SCOTLAND) BILL.
    Mr. JOHNSTONasked the hon. and gallant Member for Buteshire and North Ayrshire division of Ayr and Bute, as Chairman of the Standing Committee on Scottish Bills, whether he can give any reason for the delay in submitting the Education (Scotland) Bill to the consideration of the Scottish Grand Committee; and whether he is aware that the present delay in calling together this Committee may result in a serious congestion of business towards the end of the Session?
    Lieut.-Colonel Sir C. MacANDREW: I am aware of the possibility of congestion suggested in the question. The right hon. Gentleman will appreciate the difficulties which might arise if too many Standing Committees were sitting at the same time. I am, however, in communication with the Chairman of the Committee of Selection regarding the nomination of Members to the Standing Committee on Scottish Bills in respect of the Education (Scotland) Bill. After their appointment I shall lose no time in naming the day and the hour on which the consideration of the Bill shall begin.

    TECHNICAL EDUCATION (TYNESIDE).
    Mr. STOREYasked the President of the Board of Education whether the committee representative of the Tyneside local education authorities, the shipbuilding industry, and Armstrong College, appointed in September last, have reported upon the steps necessary to increase the facilities for technical education in shipbuilding and naval architecture on Tyneside; and whether any action has yet been taken?
    The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. Oliver Stanley): The report of the committee to which the hon. Member refers has not yet been

    37
    received by the board, but it is understood that it will now be completed very shortly.
    Mr. STOREY: Is not the position of the shipyard workers more urgent now than last July, and does the right hon. Gentleman not think that some action should he taken?
    Mr. STANLEY: It is not wise to take action before the report is submitted.

    JUVENILE OFFENDERS (APPROVED SCHOOLS).
    Mr. GARDNERasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that a large number of children and young persons who have been committed to approved schools under the Juvenile Delinquency Acts cannot he found accommodation in such schools; that delinquents, after being committed, have waited in one remand home for months; and that the day-to-day conditions prevailing in remand homes make any planned courses of special remedial education impossible; and whether he can inform the House of any steps he is taking to end this congestion which hinders and nullifies the intentions of Parliament?
    The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd): As the answer is long, I propose, with the hon. Member's permission, to circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
    Following is the answer:
    My right hon. Friend is aware of the present difficulty in finding accommodation in approved schools and of the consequent extra pressure on remand homes. In the year before the coming into force of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, some 1,900 boys and girls were sent to approved schools; the round figures in 1934 rose to 2,800 and in 1935 to 3,100. This increase of some 1,200 in two years in the population of the approved schools largely exceeded the estimates that had been made, and as soon as there was ground to think that the initial increase was likely to continue, steps were taken by the Home Office with a view to the provision of more accommodation, the responsibility for which lies in the last resort on the local authorities.
    38
    In the two and one-third years since the Act came into force, nine new schools have been opened with accommodation for 586—two by a local authority and six by voluntary bodies. Three existing schools have been extended and the authorised accommodation of every school fixed at the maximum consistent with all reasonable requirements as to health, education and occupation.
    In addition local authorities are in process of providing six more schools which, it is hoped, will be opened at intervals in the next 18 months, the first being expected to be ready about June next. It takes about two years in the ordinary way for a local authority to provide and open a new school, but in view of the emergency, in three cases local authorities have either adapted or propose to adapt existing buildings to save time. In addition to this the Roman Catholic community has undertaken to make some addition to the accommodation required for Roman Catholic boys. In the meantime other expedients of a temporary character are being actively considered. Parallel with this increase of accommodation there has been, and is continuing, a development in the remand home accommodation, which again is a responsibility laid on local authorities. The temporary shortage of approved school accommodatin inevitably leads to temporary congestion in the remand homes and I am sure that the remand home authorities are doing their best in difficult conditions. Remand homes are not intended for long detention, and the rules governing them require reasonable arrangements to be made for suitable instruction or work for the inmates.
    I can assure the hon. Member that the Home Office has been and is doing its utmost in conjunction with the local authorities and voluntary bodies to cope with the emergency which, it is hoped, will cease to exist in a comparatively short time.

    CUNARD-WHITE STAR STEAMER.
    Miss WARDasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has yet any information to give the House as to firms being asked to tender for a sister ship to the "Queen Mary"?
    Mr. W. S. MORRISON: I understand that the company has made some inquiries

    39
    but that these are of a preliminary character only. If and when the company frame definite proposals for utilising the balance of the financial facilities available under the North Atlantic Shipping Act, 1934, for increasing their tonnage, they will consult the Government upon them.

    CONTRIBUTORY OLD AGE PENSIONS.
    Mr. BATEYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether steps can now be taken to amend the Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Pensions Act, 1925, so that when a man receives the old age pension at 65 years of age his wife may at the same time receive the pension although not 65 years of age?
    Mr. W. S. MORRISON: I would refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9th December, 1935, to the hon. Member for Leigh (Mr. Tinker).
    Mr. BATEY: Is the Minister not aware of the urgent need for something to be done immediately, seeing that many of these women have to apply for Poor Law relief? Will not the Government reconsider this matter?
    Mr. MORRISON: The reply which I have given to the hon. Member refers to a previous reply which shows that the whole of the matter has been under consideration, but the state of affairs is such that the suggestion cannot be adopted at the present time.
    Mr. BATEY: Will the Department or the Government go into this matter again, seeing that it is so urgent and there is need for something to be done?
    Mr. THORNE: How is it that the Government can find money for armaments and not for a deserving object of this kind?
    Mr. BATEY: In view of the most unsatisfactory reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise this matter on the Adjournment.

    SECRET SERVICE (EXPENDITURE).
    Mr. CREECH JONESasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the amount spent each year in the last 10
    40
    years on the secret service; whether this amount is distributed among different Departments; and, if so, how it is distributed and who is responsible for its allocation?
    Mr. W. S. MORRISON: I will circulate the figures asked for in the OFFICIAL REPORT. The answer to the second part of the question is in the affirmative. The allocation is made by the Treasury, as the Department which accounts for the Vote; but from the nature of the service it would not be in the public interest to disclose further particulars.
    Following is the information:

    EXPENDITURE from Vote for Secret Service in 10 years ended 31st March, 1935.

    Year.

    £

    s.

    d.

    1925

    174,807

    3

    1

    1926

    161,292

    8

    6

    1927

    164,763

    9

    5

    1928

    162,453

    5

    9

    1929

    166,030

    11

    7

    1930

    165,298

    15

    0

    1931

    168,068

    5

    6

    1932

    177,681

    5

    0

    1933

    178,608

    14

    6

    1934

    178,799

    8

    6

  TRANSPORT.

    SAFETY REGULATIONS (MOTOR VEHICLES).
    Mr. CREECH JONESasked the Minister of Transport whether he will consider, with a view to reducing the number of road accidents, regulations governing the construction of motor vehicles in respect of the height of seats and sweep of vision so that drivers are assured of a full view of the road?
    The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of TRANSPORT (Captain Austin Hudson): The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders will, I understand, at the request of my right hon. Friend, shortly be in a position to make recommendations on this matter.
    Captain STRICKLANDasked the Minister of Transport whether in view of the hardship to operators, he will consider raising the maximum back axle weight at present allowed on four-wheeled vehicles from eight to nine tons, as long as the total gross weight does not exceed 12 tons?
    Captain HUDSON: My right hon. Friend will shortly issue a draft Regulation to this effect; he will however be prepared to consider any objections that may be raised to it.

    CARMARTHEN BRIDGE.
    Mr. HOPKINasked the Minister of Transport the result of the inquiry held at Carmarthen recently concerning the bridge; and when work will be commenced on the construction of the bridge?
    Captain HUDSON: My right hon. Friend confirmed the compulsory purchase order on 9th March. I hope the county council will commence work within one month.
    Mr. HOPKIN: Will the hon. and gallant Gentleman see that there is no further delay in this matter?

    GOODS VEHICLES (SPEED LIMIT).
    Captain STRICKLANDasked the Minister of Transport whether he can now consider the issue of a regulation placing goods vehicles, at present subject to a lower speed limit, on the same basis as passenger vehicles, in view of their similarity both as to chassis construction and weight and braking capacity?
    Captain HUDSON: My right hon. Friend is not at present prepared to ask Parliament to revise speed limits which it settled so recently as 1934.
    Captain STRICKLAND: Has the Parliamentary Secretary given full consideration to the congestion which must inevitably take place on the roads if you have one traffic with a restricted speed of 20 miles an hour and another set of vehicles with a restricted speed of 30 miles an hour?

    MOTOR CYCLES (LICENCE).
    Captain STRICKLANDasked the Minister of Transport whether he will extend to motor cyclists the privilege conceded to motor-car owners by which they may be permitted to obtain on 29th May next a licence which will enable them to use their cycles during the Whitsuntide holiday until the end of June or the end of the year as they may desire?
    Captain HUDSON: As the difference in cost would, in the case of motor cycles, be so small, it does not seem desirable to incur the administrative labour.
    Captain STRICKLAND: Is the hon. and gallant Member aware that the majority of road motor cyclists are usually small men?
    Captain HUDSON: The difference is so small that the Department does not think it worth while to make the change.

    MOTOR BATH-CHAIRS (TAX).
    Mr. KIRKPATRICKasked the Minister of Transport the amount of annual tax levied on a petrol or other power driven bath-chair, as used by cripples or invalids, including ex-service disabled men; what is the total annual income derived from taxes levied on such bath-chairs; and whether he will see his way to exempt all such bath-chairs, or similar vehicles, from all taxation?
    Captain HUDSON: The answer to the first part of the question is 5s. and to the second part about £400. The last part is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
    Mr. KIRKPATRICK: Will the hon. and gallant Member represent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the very small amount that is realised from this tax and the great value such an exemption would be to these people who have to pay it. Will he press upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer the desirability of removing this absurd tax which brings in only £400 a year?
    Captain HUDSON: Perhaps the hon. Member would put a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on that aspect of the matter.

    Mr. G. H. FREEMAN'S ESTATE.
    Mrs. TATEasked the Attorney-General the causes of delay in winding up the estate of Mr. G. H. Freeman?
    The ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I am informed that this is a complicated matter. There has been no avoidable delay on the part of the court. The conduct of the matter is in the hands of one of the creditors of the estate of the deceased. If any other creditor thinks that the executor or administrator is not proceeding with all due diligence, he can apply by summons to the court to be given conduct.

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.
Mr. ATTLEE.: May I ask the Prime Minister what business he proposes to take to-night in the event of the Motion suspending the 11 o'Clock Rule being carried?
The PRIME MINISTER: We are suspending the 11 o'Clock Rule in order to get the Navy Votes on the Order Paper, and we hope also to obtain the
Report stage of the Supplementary Estimates up to and including the Revenue Departments.
Motion made, and Question put,
"That the Proceedings on Government Business be exempted at this day's Sitting, from the provisions of the Standing Order (Sittings of the House)."—[The Prime Minister.]
The House divided: Ayes, 247; Noes, 91.

Division No. 99.]

AYES.

[3.45 p.m.

Agnew, Lieut.-Comdr. P. G.

Donner, P. W.

Levy, T.

Albery, I. J.

Drewe, C.

Lewis, O.

Alexander, Brig.-Gen. Sir W.

Duckworth, W. R. (Moss Side)

Liddall, W. S.

Allen, Lt.-Col. Sir W. J. (Armagh)

Duckworth, G. A. V. (Salop)

Lindsay, K. M.

Anderson Sir A. Garrett (C. of Ldn.)

Dugdale, Major T. L.

Llewellin, Lieut.-Col. J. J.

Anstruther-Gray, W. J.

Duggan, H. J.

Lloyd, G. W.

Aske Sir R. W.

Duncan, J. A. L.

Locker-Lampson, Comdr. O. S.

Assheton, R.

Edge, Sir W.

Loder, Captain Hon. J. de V.

Astor, Major Hon. J. J. (Dover)

Edmondson, Major Sir J.

Lovat-Fraser, J. A.

Astor, Hon. W. W. (Fulham, E.)

Elliot, Rt. Hon. W. E.

Lyons, A. M.

Baldwin, Rt. Hon. Stanley

Emmott, C. E. G. C.

MacAndraw. Lt.-Col. Sir C. G.

Balfour, Capt. H. H. (Isle of Thanet)

Emrys-Evans, P. V.

MacDonald Rt. Hn. J. R. (Scot. U.)

Balniel, Lord

Entwistle, C. F.

MacDonald. Rt. Hon. M. (Ross)

Barclay-Harvey, C. M.

Errington, E.

Macdonald, Capt. P. (Isle of Wight)

Baxter, A. Beverley

Evans, Capt. A. (Cardiff, S.)

McKie, J. H.

Beauchamp, Sir B. C.

Evans, D. O. (Cardigan)

Maclay, Hon. J. P.

Beaumont, Hon. R. E. B. (Portsm'h)

Fox, Sir G. W. G.

Macnamara, Capt. J. R. J.

Bennett, Capt. Sir E. N.

Fraser, Capt. Sir I.

Maitland. A.

Bernays, R. H.

Fremantle, Sir F. E.

Makins, Brig.-Gen. E.

Blair, Sir R.

Furness, S. N.

Margesson, Capt. Rt. Hon. H. D. R.

Blindell, Sir J.

George, Megan Lloyd (Anglesey)

Markham, S. F.

Bossom, A. C.

Gilmour, Lt.-Col. Rt. Hon. Sir I.

Mason, Lt.-Cot. Hon. G. K. M.

Bower, Comdr. R. T.

Gluckstein, L. H.

Mayhew, Lt.-Col. J.

Bowyer. Capt. Sir G. E. W.

Glyn, Major Sir R. G. C.

Meller, Sir R. J. (Mitcham)

Boyce, H. Leslie

Goodman, Col. A. W.

Mellor, Sir J. S. P. (Tamworth)

Bran, Sir W.

Gower, Sir R. V.

Mills, Major J. D. (New Forest)

Brocklebank, C. E. R.

Graham, Captain A. C. (Wirral)

Mitchell, Sir W. Lane (Streatham)

Brown, Rt. Hon. E. (Leith)

Granville, E. L.

Moreing, A. C.

Bull, B. B.

Grattan-Doyle, Sir N.

Morgan, R. H.

Bullock, Capt. M.

Gridley, Sir A. B.

Morris-Jones, Dr. J. H.

Burgin, Dr. E. L.

Griffith, F. Kingsley (M'ddl'sbro, W.)

Morrison, G. A. (Scottish Unlv's.)

Butler, R. A.

Grigg, Sir E. W. M.

Morrison, W. S. (Clrencester)

Butt. Sir A.

Grimston, R. V.

Muirhead, Lt.-Col. A. J.

Campbell, Sir E. T.

Guest, Capt. Rt. Hon. F. E. (Drake)

Munro, P. M.

Cartland, J. R. H.

Guest, Hon. I. (Brecon and Radnor)

Nicolson, Hon. H. G.

Carver, Major W. H.

Guinness, T. L. E. B.

O'Neill, Major Rt. Hon. Sir Hugh

Cary, R. A.

Hacking, Rt. Hon. D. H.

Orr-Ewing, I. L.

Castlereagh, Viscount

Hannah, I. C.

Palmer, G. E. H.

Cayzer, Sir C. W. (City of Chester)

Hannon, Sir P. J. H.

Patrick, C. M.

Cazalet, Thelma (Islington, E.)

Harris, Sir P. A.

Peat, C. U.

Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. N. (Edgb't'n)

Hartington, Marquess of

Percy, Rt. Hon. Lord E.

Channon, H.

Harvey, G.

Perkins, W. R. D.

Chapman, Sir S. (Edinburgh, S.)

Heilgers, Captain F. F. A.

Petherick, M.

Churchill. Rt. Hon. Winston S.

Heneage, Lieut.-Colonel A. P.

Pickthorn, K. W. M.

Clarke, F. E.

Hepburn, P. G. T. Buchan

Pilkington, R.

Clarry, Sir R. G.

Herbert, A. P. (Oxford U.)

Plugge, L. F.

Clydesdale, Marquess of

Hills, Major Rt. Hon. J. W. (Ripon)

Ponsonby, Col. C. E.

Cobb, Sir C. S.

Hoare, Rt. Hon. Sir S.

Pownall, Sir A. Assheton

Colfox, Major W. P.

Holmes, J. S.

Procter, Major H. A.

Colman, N. C. D.

Hope, Captain Hon. A. O. J.

Raikes, H. V. A. M.

Colville, Lt.-Col. D. J.

Hopkinson, A.

Ramsbotham, H.

Cooke, J. D. (Hammersmith, S.)

Howitt, Dr. A. B.

Rankin, R.

Cooper, Rt. Hn. A. Duff(Wst'r S.G'gs)

Hudson, Capt. A. U. M. (Hack., N.)

Rathbone, Eleanor (English Unlv's.)

Cooper, Rt. Hn. T. M. (E'nburgh, W.)

Hulbert, N. J.

Rathbone, J. R. (Bodmin)

Craddock, Sir R. H.

Hume, Sir G. H.

Reed, A. C. (Exeter)

Croft, Brig.-Gen. Sir H. Page

Hurd, Sir P. A.

Reid, Sir D. D. (Down)

Crookshank, Capt. H. F. C.

Inskip, Rt. Hon. Sir T. W. H.

Remer. J. R.

Cross, R. H.

Jackson, Sir H.

Rickards, G. W. (Skipton)

Crossley, A. C.

Keeling, E. H.

Roberts W. (Cumberland, N.)

Crowder, J. F. E.

Kerr, J. Graham (Scottish Univs.)

Ropner, Colonel L.

Culverwell, C. T.

Keyes, Admiral of the Fleet Sir R.

Ross, Major Sir R. D. (L'nderry)

Davies, Major G. F. (Yeovil)

Kirkpatrick, W. M.

Rothschild. J. A. de

Davison, Sir W. H.

Knox, Major-General Sir A. W. F.

Russell A. West (Tynemouth)

De Chair, S. S.

Lambert, Rt. Hon. G.

Russell S. H. M. (Darwen)

De la Bère, R.

Latham, Sir P.

Salmon. Sir I.

Denman, Hon. R, D.

Leckie, J. A.

Samuel Sir A. M. (Farnham)

Denville, Alfred

Lennox-Boyd, A. T. L.

Samuel, M. R. A. (Putney)

Sandys, E. D.

Tryon, Major Rt. Hon. G. C.

Turton, R. H.

Sassoon, Rt. Hon. Sir P.

Tufnell, Lieut.-Com. R. L.

Wakefield, W. W.

Savery, Servington

Stanley, Rt. Hon. Oliver (W'm'I'd)

Wallace, Captain Euan

Scott, Lord William

Stewart, William J. (Belfast, S.)

Ward. Irene (Wallsend)

Seely, Sir H. M.

Storey, S.

Warrender, Sir V.

Selley, H. R.

Strauss, H. G. (Norwich)

Waterhouse, Captain C.

Shakespeare, G. H.

Strickland, Captain W. F.

Wells, S. R.

Shaw, Major P. S. (Wavertree)

Sueter, Rear-Admiral Sir M. F.

White, H. Graham

Shaw, Captain W. T. (Forfar)

Sutcliffe, H.

Williams, H. G. (Croydon, S.)

Simon, Rt. Hon. Sir J. A.

Tasker, Sir R. I.

Wilson, Lt.-Col. Sir A. T. (Hitchin)

Sinclair. Rt Hon. Sir A. (C'thn's)

Tate, Mavis C.

Windsor-Clive, Lieut.-Colonel G.

Smith, Sir R. W. (Aberdeen)

Taylor, Vice-Adm. E. A. (Padd., S.)

Womersley, Sir W. J.

Smithers, Sir W.

Thomas, Rt. Hon. J. H. (Derby)

Somerville, A. A. (Wlndtor)

Thomas, J. P. L. (Hereford)

TELLERS FOR THE AYES.—

Southby, Comdr. A. R. J.

Thomson, Sir J. D. W.

Sir George Penny and Lieut.-

Spens, W. p.

Touche, G. C.

Colonel Sir A. Lambert Ward.

Stanley, Rt. Hon. Lord (Fylde)

Tree, A. R. L. F.

NOES.

Adams, D. (Consett)

Garro-Jones, G. M.

Pethick-Lawrence, F. W.

Adamson, W. M.

Grenfell, D. R.

Potts, J.

Alexander, Rt. Hon. A. V. (H'lsbr.)

Griffiths, G. A. (Hemsworth)

Pritt, D. N.

Anderson, F. (Whitehaven)

Groves, T. E.

Ritson, J.

Attlee, Rt. Hon. C. R.

Hall, G. H. (Aberdare)

Robinson, W. A. (St. Helens)

Banfield, J. W.

Hall, J. H. (Whitechapel)

Rowson, G.

Barnes, A. J.

Henderson, A. (Kingswinford)

Salter, Dr. A.

Barr, J.

Holland, A.

Sanders, W. S.

Batey, J.

Hopkin, D.

Sexton, T. M.

Bellenger, F.

Jagger, J.

Shinwell, E.

Benson, G.

John, W.

Short, A.

Broad, F. A.

Johnston, Rt. Hon. T.

Simpson, F. B.

Brooke, W.

Jones, A. C. (Shipley)

Smith, Ben (Rotherhithe)

Burke, W. A.

Kelly, W. T.

Smith, E. (Stoke)

Chater, D.

Kennedy, Rt. Hon. T.

Stewart, W. J. (H'ght'n-le-Sp'ng)

Cluse, W. S.

Leach, W.

Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)

Clynes, Rt. Hon. J. R.

Lee, F.

Thorne, W.

Cocks, F. S.

Leonard, W.

Thurtle, E.

Compton, J.

Macdonald, G. (Ince)

Tinker, J. J.

Cove, W. G.

McEntee, V. La T.

Walkden, A. G.

Daggar, G.

McGhee, H. G.

Walker, J.

Dalton, H.

McGovern, J.

Walkins, F. C.

Davies, S. O. (Merthyr)

MacNeill, Weir, L.

Watson, W. McL.

Day, H.

Marklew, E.

Wedgwood, Rt. Hon. J. C.

Dobbie, W.

Mathers, G.

Williams, T. (Don Valley)

Dunn, E. (Rother Valley)

Maxton, J.

Wilson, c. H. (Attercliffe)

Ede, J. C.

Messer, F.

Windsor, W. (Hull, C.)

Edwards, A. (Middlesbrough E.)

Montague, F.

Woods, G. S. (Finsbury)

Edwards, Sir C. (Bedwellty)

Morrison, R. C. (Tottenham, N.)

Young, Sir R. (Newton)

Fletcher, Lt.-Comdr. R. T. H.

Naylor, T. E.

Gardner, B. W.

Oliver, G. H.

TELLERS FOR THE NOES.—

Mr. Whiteley and Mr. Charleton.

INHERITANCE (FAMILY PROVISION) (No. 1) BILL.
Order for Second Reading upon Friday read, and discharged. Bill withdrawn.
ORDERS OF THE DAY.
  SUPPLY.
    NAVY ESTIMATES, 1936.

      LORD STANLEY'S STATEMENT.
      Order for Committee read.
      3.57 p.m.
      The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the ADMIRALTY (Lord Stanley): I beg to move, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."
      This morning's ceremony was a sad prelude to the Debate of this afternoon, but them is something very fitting that, after paying final honours to a great naval commander, we should turn straight away to the consideration of the Service to which he devoted his life, a Service which has in the last few months lost its two outstanding personalities. Lord Jellicoe and Lord Beatty are dead, but their record and their memory will remain for all time an inspiration to British seamen. This is not the moment to speak at length of the great services which Lord Beatty rendered to the country. There will be another occasion, and a. more fitting one, for that to be done. Suffice is to say that another of the great ones has passed on, leaving the country to mourn a devoted servant, the Navy an inspiring leader, and many of us a valued friend and a gallant sportsman. Lord Beatty's family life was particularly happy, and I am sure that the deepest sympathy of the House will go out to his son, who was until so recently one of our colleages in this House and who, but for this unhappy event, would have been helping me here this afternoon.
      In introducing the Navy Estimates for the first time, I am very sensible of the high standard which has been set during the last four years. On this occasion the House has learnt to expect from the First Lord not only a very clear explanation of the Estimates, but also an interesting review of naval affairs. I am sure, therefore, that it must be a source of gratification to the House that, although translated to another place, my Noble Friend still holds the same high office, to the great advantage both of the Department and of the Service. I am sure, too, that the House will sympathise with me in my effort this afternoon.
      56
      Not only have I a difficult task in following such an able man as the First Lord of the Admiralty, but this is the first speech of any defence Minister in the presence of the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Fareham (Sir T. Inskip), whom we all congratulate on his promotion from Attorney-General to co-ordinator-general.
      The Estimates which am presenting this afternoon are unusual in one respect, and that is that they represent only part of the expenditure on the year's activities of the Navy. They leave out several large items for which financial provision will become necessary during the current year. They omit any expenditure which may arise from a continuation of the Italo-Abyssinian dispute, other than for material which has been already ordered and additional personnel which has already been approved in the Supplementary Estimates that I introduced not long ago. They also omit provision for making good deficiencies other than those which were started or approved in last year's Estimates, and of course there is no mention of the new construction programme of 1936. The last few items will certainly have to be the subject of a Supplementary Estimate later on in the year.
      I now turn from what the Estimates do not contain to what they do contain. The increase as compared with the original Estimates of 1935 is £9,880,000. I will give as few figures as I can during my speech, but I think the House will be interested to see how this increase is distributed over the various Votes. The Naval Materiel Votes (4, 8 and 9), are up by £8,416,300. The Naval Personnel Votes (1, 2, 3 and 7), are up by £831,800. The Work Vote, No. 10, is up by £240,750, the Non-Effective Votes by £216,700, and the Administrative, Scientific and Educational Votes are up by £174,450. I give these figures to prove to the satisfaction of the House that a most the entire increase—to be accurate 93.6 per cent.—is required for materiel and personnel Votes and goes directly to strengthen the Navy either in men or ships.
      By far the largest increase is that for new construction; that is, the advancement and completion of ships whose construction had already been approved by this House in previous Estimates. The

      57
      increase there is £4,645,000. The reasons for this increase are two-fold: In the first place the programme for 1934–5 was bigger than those of previous years and therefore cost more. Last year we also had an additional flotilla of destroyers; and, generally speaking, the programmes of the two last years are more expensive in comparison with the earlier programmes which were still in hand when the Estimates were presented on the last occasion. The 1935 destroyer flotilla was ordered somewhat earlier than usual and the work on the cruisers of the 1933 and 1931 programmes went faster than was anticipated. I would repeat what I said on the last occasion, that although the various causes of extra expenditure fall in 1936, that is, of course, in relief of expenditure in subsequent years and there is no addition to the ultimate cost involved, in the money to be found from the taxpayer.
      These Estimates also provide for progress with the first partially developed programme for remedying deficiencies which were alluded to in the White Paper of 1935. It was fully explained last year over which Votes the deficiencies were spread and the policy for which they were adopted. But there is no provision for the final and more fully developed programme which was superimposed upon it, as explained in the White Paper of this year. Generally speaking this progress covers the building up of our more important war reserves and strengthening the defence of the Fleet against air attacks. We also provide for those measures arising out of the Italo-Abyssinian dispute which have already been decided upon. The House will be glad to know that we are making increased provision in various directions about which in the past there have been complaints that the Admiralty has been parsimonious.
      We are making provision for larger requirements of ammunition, mainly antiaircraft, for Fleet practices, and we are asking for a considerably larger sum for fuel supply, partly owing to the growth of normal requirements and partly to a more adequate allowance for special Fleet exercises. In both of these directions there has been the criticism in the past that we have been curtailing the activities of the Fleet owing to a lack of am-
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      munition and fuel for the ships. That certainly cannot be said on the present occasion. This increased activity, of course, carries with it extra expenditure under other Votes. It means larger sums for experimental work on new types of armaments, for machinery and plant at the various establishments, for labour, for inspection and overseeing staffs, and also for an essential increase in scientific, technical and supplies staffs.
      I turn for a moment from materiel to personnel. I find in Vote A an increase of 4,613 compared with Vote A of the original 1935 Estimate, lout authority was given in the Supplementary Estimate to vote an additional 3,500 officers and men on account of the emergency, and therefore the increase over last year's final figure is 1,113. I must explain to the House that in this Vote A we are asking only for the numbers actually required for the normal services of the present Fleet, built and building, and that a further number will be necessary for additional requirements under the White Paper during the course of the year. The final increase on 31st March, 1937, will be rather more than the 6,000 stated in paragraph 29 of the White Paper. The increase for which we are now asking is due to two main causes.
      Mr. MAXTON: The Noble Lord has said that by 1937 the number of extra men will be rather more than the 6,000 mentioned in the White Paper. Will he say roughly what "rather more" means?
      Lord STANLEY: That is so. The White Paper says that there is going to be an increase by the end of this year of 6,000 on the Estimate at the beginning of last year, but eventually we shall find that it will be slightly more than that figure. The increase is due to two causes. First of all it follows on the refitting of old ships and the replacement of smaller old ships by larger new ones, and on the large refits of the older battleships and the earlier "county" class cruisers. Not only are we replacing out-of-date equipment, but we are also installing additional equipment and apparatus, mainly to meet aeroplanes. Of course all this additional equipment has to be met. Destroyers, and in some cases cruisers, are larger than those which are being replaced, but apart from size ton per ton the new ships require a greater

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      complement than the old ships, owing to the increased equipment that is placed in them.
      Secondly, the policy of keeping fully commissioned ships in service with less than their proper complement on board must be considerably modified in future. At a period when construction programmes were being reduced our manning problems were quite easy. Vote A was always ahead of requirements and we had plenty of men, supernumeraries, if any of the ships ran short; we had plenty of men to create a drafting pool. The necessity of that I need hardly mention here. But as the new construction programme got larger and as Vote A has got smaller, and we get down to this final low figure, we find that the position has changed. On the last two occasions we have had to come to the House and ask for men because we found that the drafting difficulties were becoming almost insuperable. Men were not getting their fair share of home service and we were not getting a proper portion of the right ranks and ratings in the various ships and establishments, all showing that our reserve of men was not large enough. Of course that position has been accentuated in the past year. We have found exactly where the shoe pinches and have found that a reduced complement is not satisfactory. Therefore we are asking to-day for these extra men to fill this gap.
      The House will realise some of the difficulties which we have with regard to training. Not only are we increasing the size of Vote A, but we have come to a period where a great number of men are leaving owing to the completion of their service. We have not only to take in new entrants to make good the increase, but also to make good the ordinary natural wastage. In order to cater for the increased number of new entries provision has been made in Votes 8 and 10 for about £167,000 for extension of training establishments for boys and a depot for special service seamen. We are very anxious to maintain in these training establishments a standard of living conditions comparable to that which is to be found in civilian establishments of the same kind. We recognise the advantage that it is, not only to the boys themselves but ultimately to the service, that we should give them every opportunity for
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      healthy development at this very important period in their lives. We are, in this year's Estimates, providing not only for a decrease in the number of boys in each dormitory—and we shall therefore require additional buildings—but we are giving better facilities in the way of drying rooms, swimming baths, cook houses, and things of that kind. As a good deal will probably be said this afternoon about personnel, it may interest the House to know that boys are entered between the ages of 15 and 16⅓ and their training lasts about a year, while special service men are in a different category. They are entered between the ages of 16½ and 25 and their training lasts from about six to 12 months according to the particular class to which they belong. As special service men, they only come in, nominally, for a short period but after two years they may engage, if they wish and if they are recommended, on long service and therefore pensionable terms.
      Last year, the First Lord in introducing the Estimates dwelt at some length on the future prospects of men on the lower deck and particularly to the improved rate of advancement on the lower deck. Previously there has been a great block in the rate of promotion to the higher ratings on the lower deck. Last year the First Lord announced that there had been a considerable improvement in this rate of advance. During this year, with the further increase in numbers, I am glad to say that the rate of advancement has improved still further and that the delay in qualified men obtaining promotion, which has so often been complained of in the past, has now practically ceased to exist. An innovation which has proved a substantial convenience to the sailors is the introduction of a family welfare section with a trained woman welfare worker attached to it at each of the three naval depots. These sections are serving a very useful purpose in helping to prevent many of the small difficulties and troubles which are apt to be created in a home when a man is absent on service abroad. One other change affecting the lower deck of which the House may like to hear is the substitution of weekly payments of pensions for quarterly payments. This change, generally speaking, is optional except for new entries and men re-engaging, but we think that the majority of pensioners will find the

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      weekly payment a convenience in arranging their home budgets.
      Before leaving the question of personnel, I should like to say that one unfortunate result of the concentration of ships in the Eastern Mediterranean has been to deprive many officers and men of the advantages of what otherwise should have been home service, which had been earned by previous service abroad. These men are out of reach of their homes and it has been a long period of strain and anxiety both to them and their families. Recreational facilities, although everything possible has been done for them both by people here and by people on the spot, remain limited and, of course, a great deal of additional work has fallen upon all. I am very happy, therefore, to be able to take this opportunity of telling the House that we have received from the Commander-in-Chief ample testimony to the splendid spirit and bearing of all ranks and ratings in these very difficult circumstances.
      There are two more large items of increase on the materiel side which may, conveniently, be taken at this stage. They are items of considerable interest. One is the Vote for the Fleet Air Arm, which is increased from last year by £1,193,000. That increase allows for the addition of 27 machines, three of these being allotted to carriers, 12 to battleships, and 12 to cruisers, bringing the total strength of seaborne aircraft from 190 to 217. It also allows for the replacement of 84 machines by new aircraft with full reserves. This replacement process might be compared with the periodical large refits required by serving vessels. The House may like to know that aircraft are now provided automatically for new construction, that is to say, all new ships are now fitted with catapults in exactly the same way as they are fitted with guns and other armament. The First Lord, last year, devoted a considerable part of his speech to dwelling on the importance of the Fleet Air Arm, the value of aircraft as an additional weapon to the Navy and the necessity of learning what new uses we can make of the Fleet Air Arm and taking every advantage we can of the chances of cooperation, not only between ships and carriers but between the Navy and the Royal Air Force. In one passage he said that:
      "The Navy and the Air were peculiarly complementary and in future they must
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      work ever closer and closer together."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 14th March, 1935; col. 597, Vol. 299.]
      I am glad to think that that policy has been carried 'out during the last year. The constant presence of carriers with the main fleets and the increase in the number of aircraft now carried in ships, have given a great opportunity to the Navy, of which every advantage has been taken, for gaining experience in this vital weapon and for practice in the lessons of co-operation.
      The other large item deals with Fleet repairs and refits. The cost under this head is £770,000 more than last year. That is accounted for by the number of large ships that will be in hand for these repairs during this year. We have now four battleships, "Repulse," "Royal Oak," "Malaya," and "Warspite" at present in hand and on the completion of the first two, their places will be taken by "Renown" and "Revenge." Two cruisers of the Kent class—"Cumberland" and "Suffolk" are also in hand for large repairs and when they are completed their places will be taken by "Cornwall" and "Kent." There is thus more work in hand than there was at the same period of last year. The practice of referring to these large refits—which are really nothing new and have always occurred in the lifetime of such ships—as "modernisation" may lead to some misunderstanding. The use of the word "modernisation" might lead people to think that the ships were made as good as new but that can never be the case. These large repairs can increase the fighting qualities of the ships but these ships could never take the place of new construction or be as effective as new construction. It is essential, however, in view of the fact that no battleships have been built for such a long time and that it would take a very long time before the whole battle Fleet could be replaced, that the older ships which are required to continue in service so long before replacement, should have improvements made, particularly improvements in armoured protection against air attack. That is one of the main things which we are doing now in this process which is sometimes called "modernisation."
      Here I must pay a tribute to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. A. V. Alexander) because,

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      in this matter, we are following the lead which he gave when he was First Lord of the Admiralty. As soon as the London Naval Treaty postponed the replacement of battleships he adopted the policy of giving all our existing ships additional armour protection against air attack commencing with the "Barham" in 1931. That policy is still being carried on. Having paid that tribute to the right hon. Gentleman I find it rather surprising that in his speeches in the country during the General Election in. November he denied that our capital ships were either out-of-date or deficient of protection against air attack. He is reported in the "Daily Herald" of 7th November as saying:
      "Every one of the 12 battleships is armoured as well as any ship in the world."
      That statement seems hardly consistent with the energetic action which he took as First Lord of the Admiralty to deal with this very question of inadequate protection. I must say that, in this respect, I infinitely prefer the First Lord Jekyll at the Admiralty to the ex-First Lord Hyde on the election platform. I now come to a question which is exercising everybody's mind at the present time, that is the question of whether the battleship has outlived its period of usefullness or not, and whether it is the right policy to rebuild the battle Fleet. I would preface what I have to say by asking the House not to be biased by those very powerful speeches made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) and the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) on Tuesday last.
      Mr. CHURCHILL: I never referred to the question of battleships, except to say that, at the moment, it was an academic question.
      Lord STANLEY: Yes, I think my right hon. Friend did say that it was an academic question, but what I was about to remark was that the very necessary policy of accelerating what may be called the shorter term building programme, that is to say, the building of ships which could be ready fairly soon, ought not to prejudice the commencement of a long-term policy. After all, when the crisis will come is a matter of some doubt. We cannot say the exact date. Therefore, while we want to hurry on with that pro-
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      gramme which can be constructed early, we do not want to postpone indefinitely what may be called the long-term building programme. I have purposely dealt with the questions of the Fleet Air Arm and the protection of battleships against air attack together, so that the House may realise that the board is not living in the past, but is fully alive to the rapid development of air power and its effect on naval policy.
      On several occasions I have referred to the board, and I think the House may like to know who are the members of this board, who are the people from whom we get our advice, and what is the nature of their experience. We have got the First Sea Lord. During the War he was Flag Captain to Lord Beatty and since then he has commanded both the Home and Mediterranean Fleets before becoming Chief of the Naval Staff. I would like to reassure my Noble Friend the Member for Horsham (Earl Winterton), who was rather doubtful as to the quality of some of the men at the top of the various Services, by saying that his work as Chief of the Naval Staff has made a very deep impression upon all those with whom he has come in contact, and that he is in every way a worthy successor to the illustrious names mentioned by my Noble Friend. Another member won the Victoria Cross for work in connection with submarines and was recently Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies where there were no battleships. Still another has commanded a carrier and has been Rear-Admiral in Command of Carriers. I may say that he has won the rare distinction of having received unqualified praise by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Carnarvon Boroughs for initiating the organisation of the convoy system. I am only giving this history to show the House what sort of men we rely upon for advice. They are not men who have spent their whole time of service in battleships. We are able to get from them the benefit of long and varied experience in the different branches of the Service.
      Every aspect of this question of battleships has been argued in countless speeches and letters, mainly, I must say, by critics who are always ready to presume that their audiences have a greater knowledge than they actually possess. But I do feel than the man-in-the-street

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      is anxious to be convinced upon this point. The House and the taxpayer will be quite prepared to pay the money if they think that the money is going to be spent to the best advantage. They are honestly doubtful in their own minds if the battleship is wanted. If they are convinced that it is necessary, then they will be ready to pay. Therefore I am trying to speak on this subject as a layman to laymen. The first thing we have to settle in our own minds is exactly what the battleship is to be used for. It has been laid down that
      "the duty of the concentrated main Fleet is to defeat in battle the strongest force that an enemy can concentrate against it or render it immobile without destroying cruisers detached for convoy and other special service."
      The part the battleship has to play is to cover the operations of the smaller surface vessels, to be prepared to engage enemy battleships if they attack, and to nullify any large concentration of enemy ships.
      It has been very picturesquely said that Lord Jellicoe could have lost the War in an afternoon. That is true. He would have lost the War by losing his battleships. The essential cover to our cruisers would have gone and our lines of communication would have been exposed. In trying to clear my mind on the subject of battleships I have read through a great many things written on this subject and I came across this. It is from an account of the battle of Jutland. The writer said that Lord Jellicoe's duty was to defeat the German High Sea Fleet if he could, but his work was equally effective if he kept the German Fleet bottled up in its home waters. He then went on to say:
      "So long as this impotency was imposed upon the German capital ship by the Allied capital ship, there was nothing further for the latter to do, but the effect on the German naval forces was far-reaching. Her cruisers could not live at sea, except by evasion, her. destroyers could only make spasmodic raids and the could not even interrupt the steady stream of reinforcements and materiel which poured forth day by day from British ports to France, although of all the maritime objectives which were open to her this was by far the most important."
      That shows only too clearly the value of battleships during the Great War.
      Colonel WEDGWOOD: How long ago was that?
      Lord STANLEY: It is historical. I am coming to the point which the right hon. Gentleman made. Is the case for the abolition of the battleship based on the lessons of the last War or because of postwar developments? I think if those who oppose them do so as the result of the lessons of the last War my answer is quite an easy one. A very strong committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence was appointed in December, 1920, to take evidence on the question of the capital ships in the Royal Navy. They reported in March, 1921, that all the evidence went in favour of continuing with the policy of having battleships. My right hon. Friend the Member for Epping was a Member of that Committee, and I hope he holds the same views now as he did then and will be prepared to give the same energetic support. I can only hope he will show as much enthusiasm for the battleships as for what he was good enough to call "snowdrops" the other day.
      We can now limit our attention to the question of post-War criticism, and here we are on more difficult ground. If the opponents of battleships oppose because of the results of the War they are opposing because of something that has happened, because of facts. If they are opposing because of post-War developments they are opposing not because of something that has happened, but of something that may happen. The argument has been narrowed down to one of bomb versus battleship, but the issue is really a much wider one. The question is not whether a bomb can sink a battleship, but whether new methods of warfare can prevent battleships from carrying out their proper functions, and whether the place of battleships can be now taken by cruisers, by aircraft, or by a combination of the two.
      So much publicity has been given to this narrower issue of whether a bomb can sink a battleship that I will deal with it first. From time immemorial there has been a race between attack and defence. New weapons are discovered which are claimed to be irresistible, but in the long run they are countered by new methods of defence, and so the race goes on. Before the last War we were told that the torpedo was invincible. It was expected to spell doom to the larger vessels. But the larger vessels still survived. Exactly the same process is going

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      on now with regard to the dangers of air attack. The Admiralty has paid, is paying and will continue to pay the greatest attention to defence against air attacks both active and passive. Extensive large-scale experiments have been carried on to ascertain the damage which can be done both above and below water by the explosion of bombs. As a result of these experiments we shall meet the danger in new construction and as far as possible in reconstruction, and of course we shall be perfectly prepared, and indeed we are only too anxious, to carry on with these experiments and get, as much extra knowledge and experience as we possibly can. In addition, counter-attack by anti-aircraft batteries on ships has developed out of all knowledge and that development is still continuing. This leads one to believe that though damage may be done, and even though individual ships may possibly be put out of action by bombs, as they certainly can be by any other form of weapon, yet battleships will not be made impotent by air attack, and will therefore remain supreme at sea.
      Another fallacious idea has got about. That is that the battleship, because of its size, is terribly vulnerable. That is an entirely wrong idea. Because of its size it is much easier to defend. Because of its size it can have greater depth of armour, can he divided into compartments by which the damage from explosions is localised, and can carry a practically unlimited number of anti-aircraft guns. That does not mean that we think the size of battleships is the "be-all and end-all," but I will deal with that point later. If you say that you must not build battleships because you are frightened of their being sunk by aircraft, you ought to continue that argument and logically apply it to every form of surface craft. There is another section of opinion that attaches safety to numbers. That section of opinion wishes to replace battleships by a large number of cruisers, partly because they do not wish to have all their eggs in one basket and partly because they think it is a cheaper form of defence. They are wrong in both those ideas. They are wrong tactically because smaller ships by themselves can never be a match for battleships, and they are wrong financially because it is far more expensive to build, man and maintain extra cruisers
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      than to re-build and maintain the battle Fleet.
      To sum up, I would tell the House with complete confidence that the unanimous view of serving naval opinion not only in this country but in all other countries where they have battleships is that the battleship is in essential part of the Fleet. Battleships need not necessarily be very large. We have always wanted them to be kept down to 25,000 tons, and in some circumstances that might be reduced, but there must be, sufficient disparity in size between battleships and cruisers to prevent the successful concentration of the latter, and as long as other fleets have battleships ours must be powerful enough to engage on equal terms. We hear a great deal about the amount of damage which aircraft may do to our ships, but we never hear the claim that they can immobilise the enemy's battle fleet. Obviously other countries take the carne view. They cannot feel that aircraft will put an end to battleships when they are all either building new battleships or modernising their existing ships.
      Nor do I believe that a combination of smaller ships and aircraft can give us our necessary security. They can never guarantee the impotency of enemy battleships, nor can they drive them off the trade routes if they once establish themselves there. That was a point which was raised by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Carnarvon Boroughs in the Debate last week. He pooh-poohed battleships, and said, "Give us a great number of destroyers; they are the ships that guaranteed the safe arrival of our foodstuffs, they are the ships that guaranteed our troops being taken over to France." I do not want to minimise the work done by destroyers, but it could never have been successfully carried out if it had not been for the work that was being done by the battleships further up in the North Sea. We believe that battleships are necessary but if there be any opinion to the contrary, the Admiralty would like, not only to hear those contrary views, but, still more important, to know the evidence on which those views are based. The Admiralty is perfectly ready to face an inquiry at any time, but we consider the onus of proof rests with those who oppose battleships

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      and does not rest with the Board of Admiralty.
      We now turn from battleships to destroyers, and I will try to meet the point raised by my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping on Tuesday last with regard to the construction of destroyers from the point of view of anti-submarine work. He will know that the Noble Lord, the First Lord of the Admiralty, has stated, on several occasions during the past few years that he is quite satisfied with the present steady building programme. The reason he is satisfied is that that programme will give us sufficient modern destroyers for work with the Fleet, and it is for that particular work that we want the faster and rather more heavily armed destroyers, leaving the over-age destroyers to deal with anti-submarine operations for which they are well suited. Our destroyer position is that we have now 64 under-age destroyers, with 29 ordered or building, exclusive of this year's programme. Thirteen will be completed this year, but as three will become over-age during that period, we shall be left with 74 under-age destroyers at the end of the year, which coincides with the determination of the London Naval Treaty. The policy of the Admiralty is to increase the proportion of under-age destroyers in our total destroyer strength to approximately 75 per cent., and such steps to this end as are consistent with our other heavy commitments are being taken.
      Vice-Admiral TAYLOR: What is that total number of destroyers that we consider to be necessary? What is the number to which we are working?
      Lord STANLEY: I shall be coming to that question. The board feel that the position with regard to destroyers will, before long, be better than in any other class of ship. By the London Naval Treaty we agreed to reduce our destroyer tonnage to 150,000, which would mean approximately 115 destroyers, but, as the House knows, there are appropriate provisions in the Treaty by which we may increase this tonnage either by building new destroyers or by retaining those overage which would otherwise be scrapped if we are not satisfied that there has been a reduction in the number of foreign submarines. In dealing with the general
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      question of defence against submarines, I would like to tell the House that, owing to the modern equipment and increased size, fewer destroyers are needed now to do the same work as had to be done by many more during the War. Nor do we rely on destroyers alone. We have 40 sloops built or building, which are specially designed for this purpose and for rapid construction in case of emergency. In an emergency, also, trawlers can be taken up, and in the last Supplementary Estimate provision was made for 20 trawlers for this kind of work and they are now part of our permanent strength.
      As I said in an earlier part of my speech, defence always catches up with attack. By the end of the War we had definitely got the better of the submarine menace, and the position has been further strengthened by the march of science in post-war years. The board is fully alive to the importance of maintaining this superiority and consider that the steps which have been and are being taken are adequate to meet the present situation. I had hoped to be able to give the House some account of the progress of the Naval Conference, but, unfortunately, I have nothing to add to the communiqués which have been issued. It is a source of encouragement that during the last difficult months the Conference has been able to continue its work. That says much, not only for the tact and ability of my Noble Friend, the First Lord, who is the Chairman of the First Committee, but for the helpful cooperation of the other Powers. The fact that we have been able to keep the Conference alive has been due to the self-denying ordinance of silence which has been so loyally kept by all concerned.
      I have been in this House long enough to know that there is one unforgivable sin, that is, for anybody who is introducing a Bill or an Estimate to take too long, for, if he does, all interest in the subject is killed. I fear that I have very nearly transgressed in that respect. I would only say, in conclusion, that whatever we may feel about armaments, whether we think that they can prevent war or postpone war, there is one thing we know that they can do. They can prevent defeat and unnecessary suffering and hardship falling on our country. It is the responsibility of the Navy to keep command of the seas and thus to ensure

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      the safe arrival of supplies which are essential to the very existence of our people. It is the responsibility of Members of this House to the people who sent them here not to deny the Navy the means whereby these obligations can be carried out.
      4.54 p.m.
      Mr. A. V. ALEXANDER: I should like at the outset to say how much we on this side, although we so widely differ from him in policy, welcome the success of the Parliamentary Secretary in the not too easy task of introducing these very large, wide and varied Estimates in a particularly important year. The Noble Lord, in his life as a debater in this House, was so long under the necessary repression of the Whips that perhaps we have not had the opportunity in the past of understanding his quality so well as we have done this afternoon. We welcome the endeavour he has made to make these very difficult and complex Estimates plain to the House. We wish he had been able at the same time to make the whole policy of the Government in the matter just as plain. We on this side join very fully in the remarks that the Noble Lord made with regard to those eminent Naval officers who have passed away since the last Debate on the Naval Estimates. To know Lord Jellicoe was to know not merely a brave and gallant officer, but a great gentleman. His life of service to the State, not merely in Naval matters, but in social work, was one of which his family and, indeed, the whole nation might be proud. It was not my personal privilege to know Lord Beatty as well as I knew Lord Jellicoe, but my hon. Friends on this side also join the Noble Lord in the tribute he paid to his great services to the State.
      A point was mentioned by the Parliamentary Secretary which was interesting, but was not explored. It is, therefore, rather difficult for us to explore it. That was his brief and passing reference to the appointment of the new Minister of Defence. I looked anxiously along the Government Benches to discover this new super Minister of Defence to see whether he was listening and understanding the problems of the senior of the three Services which it is now his duty to co-ordinate. Unfortunately, he has not perhaps been able to get rid quickly
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      enough of his legal responsibilities and, therefore, I do not make any complaint of the fact that he is not here. I can only say that there are a good many in the House who were very surprised at the choice of the Prime Minister. Many of us, however, have a long acquaintance and knowledge of the late Attorney-General, and we have always appreciated him as a man and as a Parliamentary colleague. While we may differ from the Prime Minister in his political choice, we personally wish the new Minister well in the difficult task with which he is confronted.
      The Estimates which the Noble Lord has introduced are very important. They are large in size, but they seem to have been introduced for debate in a condition of almost complete unreality. I felt all the time that I was listening to his exposition of the Estimates in an air of unreality in the House. Here are Estimates for approximately £70,000,000 for the provision of Naval equipment, personnel and so on, for the year. We are told by the Parliamentary Secretary in no uncertain fashion what the Estimates do not contain. They contain no provision for the continuing expenditure on special services in the Mediterranean in relation to the Italo-Abyssinian dispute. They contain no provision for the wide proposals for expansion in the Fleet which were set out in the White Paper on Defence. This means that we are having no Estimates laid before the House in toto, showing the cost to the nation of the senior fighting service. We do not know under what conditions the House will be asked to review the total expenditure to be made for the year. The Prime Minister will, I think, take a special note of this.
      In the Debate on the White Paper on Defence we understood most explicitly from him and, I think, from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, although these questions were to be the subject of Supplementary Estimates, nothing would interfere with the right of the House of Commons properly to control and to check the expenditure which was to be incurred. As a matter of fact, in reply to a question in the House only a day or two ago the Financial Secretary to the Treasury intimated that the Government regarded the vote on the White Paper on Defence last week as complete authority for putting all the

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      work in hand at once, and until most of the money in the financial year is already spent we shall have not the slightest opportunity to exercise any check whatever upon it. That is a very unsatisfactory and unworthy position for us to be in as the. custodians of the rights of the taxpayers and of public finance. It is a completely unreal position, also, because the Noble Lord has said nothing about the position at the London Naval Conference of 1935–36, except that right at the end of his speech he told us he had nothing to add to the communiqués—I think that was the word—which had been issued. What communiqués? Where are they? Does he refer to the statements in the Press?
      Lord STANLEY: The official communiqués in the Press.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: But what about the House of Commons? Here is the House debating to-day this enormous expenditure and we are asked to be satisfied with a subsequent debate on a wide expansion programme, and with a reference to official communiqués. There is not a single paper on the subject in the Vote Office, though one or two odd papers have been issued from time to time to the Press. That is not treating the representatives of the people with respect, but with complete disrespect.
      Earl WINTERTON: And we cannot discuss things in the Press. We are not allowed to do so.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: I agree, and I am much obliged to the Noble Lord for making a very pertinent observation on what is practically a constitutional point. We have no opportunity of either challenging or of checking the general structure and policy of this set of Estimates. As I said about the White Paper itself, it is an insult to the House of Commons to be asked to discuss major Estimates of this kind while so completely in the dark as the Board of Admiralty are leaving us on this occasion. The Prime Minister must not escape his personal responsibility to the House on this point. He is Leader of the House and has been asked specifically on two occasions to furnish the House with a White Paper which would show what was the actual policy the Government were pursuing at
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      the Naval Conference. On both occasions, although there was an excellent precedent set by his predecessor at the time of the 1930 Conference, he has declined, and so we are labouring under the enormous disadvantage of not knowing exactly where the Government stand in these matters. We are discussing these Estimates in a position of complete unreality.
      Let us look at the finance of the matter. We are being asked to vote to-day Estimates in connection with a total expenditure within a few pounds of £70,000,000. Those are easily the highest Naval Estimates for the last 14 years. If we are to believe rumours in the Press of what the new construction programme will cost, it would seem that we are to have a Supplementary Estimate covering the Mediterranean operation and the new construction programme which will bring the Estimates up to at least £80,000,000 or more for the year. That is an extraordinary position in present circumstances, and I want the House and the country to note what it means. If my figures are right—and if they are wrong the Noble Lord should tell us so—it means that we shall be spending on the Navy this year one-third of the whole of the yield of the Income Tax. That is a pretty high proportion of the national expenditure. This financial burden being so large it is not unreasonable that we should examine it very closely in relation to policy. Moreover, I noticed that the Noble Lord said of the sum included in the Estimates for construction and repair to ships that that had been largely caused by a speeding up of a programme which had already been announced, and that, therefore, although the cost was heavy this year it would not fall to be voted again.
      It would not be unsafe to prophesy, judging by the way the Government are nursing Vote A, and gradually bringing it up, in relation to the maintenance of the Fleet, that the level of Naval Estimates this year will not the highest, by any means, for some years to come. If the plan of the White Paper for providing 70 cruisers and for replacing battleships at a cost of not less than about £6,500,000 each is proceeded with—and I can see no great economies in the cost per ton of ships, according to the details of Vote A—then it is quite on the

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      cards that we shall be having Naval Estimates in the next few years amounting to something much nearer £100,000,000 than £70,000,000, and there will be all the extra maintenance cost to be added as that programme develops.
      My hon. Friends on this side of the House are concerned about the apparent nonchalance displayed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his speech winding up the Debate on the White Paper dealing with Defence. He said, in reference to the cost, "£100,000,000—£200,000,000—of course we can find it," and the right hon. Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) applauded. I wish we could see the same devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky attitude towards increased expenditure when we are asking for money for the social services, when we ask for the expenditure of capital not upon works of this kind but works of a reproductive character. There is an extraordinary difference in the attitude of the Government when asked for a few millions for social services, or for actual reproductive work such as would improve the capital value of the nation as a, whole; and however the present circumstances may be regarded, I think we are entitled to utter our very strongest protest at the general attitude adopted by the Government on this occasion.
      In view of the complete absence of any effective statement from the Government on what happened in the negotiations about disarmament, I feel that we are entitled to say a few words, and to say them very strongly, about the Government's policy. What is the Government's naval policy? Apparently the naval policy of the White Paper is an instalment. I did not regard it last week as a final filling of the gap of deficiencies, it was an instalment. The Government are apparently dealing with this matter without any real consideration of the policy of collective security, at any rate without adequate consultation with other nations in the League as to what their share of collective security should be. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said last week that the one thing we ought to avoid in the present crisis was an atmosphere of panic, and I thoroughly agree, but I cannot help thinking, as I look at the facts, that the whole naval policy of the Government in the last few months has been based upon panic.
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      How else could one interpret the pathos of the Prime Minister's wireless appeal to the nation before the election last October? If in the history of electioneering anybody has ever tried to put the fear of God into the people it was the Prime Minister in that wireless broadcast. Anyone without any real knowledge of the facts who listened to that statement would have believed that we had a Fleet that was largely and rapidly reaching a state of obsolescence, putting us all into a position of grave danger, and that adequate steps had not been taken to do what the Prime Minister of the Labour Government said they would prevent, and that was the bottom falling out of the British Fleet; whereas anybody who knew the facts would know that that was an entirely erroneous impression to put before the public. [Interruption.] The Noble Lady the Member for the Sutton Division of Plymouth (Viscountess Astor) speaks on such matters as a naval expert, representing a naval town. I have heard a good many speeches from the representatives of naval towns, and they always have a particular point of view, and I can quite understand it.
      I say here to-day, and I ask the Government to deny it, if they can, that the British Fleet is the largest, the most powerful, the most efficient Fleet in the whole world. That remark applies not to this or that category of vessels but to all the categories of vessels in the British Fleet. It applies to the category of capital ships, in spite of what the Prime Minister said in his broadcast. At the moment when he was speaking there. were no other two capital ships afloat in the whole world which could match the "Nelson" and the "Rodney." If you take the actual age and the equipment of the rest of the capital ships there was nothing in the whole world really comparable with them, outside the United States of America, and the United States has of late years always been ruled out of account as a possible enemy against whom we have to make special provision. It is the same with regard to aircraft carriers and their equipment. The present First Lord of the Admiralty has done a good deal in the last hour years to develop the equipment of the Fleet with aircraft for counter-attack, and I acknowledge it at once. It was continuing the good work that we on this side initiated. Comparing

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      that category of ships with other fleets, there was not the slightest ground for the Government telling the country that we were not properly equipped in relation to other nations.
      Take the cruiser category. As a matter of fact, because of the wisdom of the Labour Government in 1930 in coming to an agreement with other Powers on limitation in that category, we have been enabled to map out and to lay down since 1929 a regular replacement programme so that, in comparison with the other cruiser fleets in the world, the Fleet of this country was not only the largest but the most efficient. I shall not for a. moment deny that some of those ships were rapidly approaching the over-age position, but there was nothing that could not have been met by the ordinary, annual replacement programme. On this side of the House we have never suggested that this replacement programme should not be proceeded with. If hon. Members would look at the official policy of the Labour party stated at the General Election, they will see that we made it plain that we are willing to maintain such defence forces as are necessary and consistent with our membership of the League of Nations. In our naval commitments, while we were in office, as well as in our attitude to them now, we are as willing as ever we were to see that what is necessary and consistent in that regard shall be kept in an efficient condition.
      Let us look at destroyers, to which category the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping properly drew special attention last week. The one point in his speech with which I agreed more, perhaps, than any other, was his reference to the folly of the Anglo-German Treaty of last year, to the consequent danger of a wide expansion of submarines and the consequent larger provision for destroyers. That, at any rate, cannot be laid to our charge, because it was the responsibility of the Government who are sitting on that bench.
      In regard to the destroyer category as it stands, we do not deny that some of the tonnage is bad. A destroyer of about 1,000 tons which costs about £300,000, is only supposed technically to have a life of 13 years, but if the Admiralty like to take reasonable care of such ships 13 years is not the limit of their life
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      of useful service. That was behind the remark of the Noble Lord when he said that the Chief of the Admiralty was aiming at a dual policy, which was to have a new and up-to-date destroyer fleet for Fleet service and the other, perfectly efficient and well controlled, to carry out the other duties that would properly fall to the destroyer category. There is never the slightest reason for the Government's putting the wind up the electorate, as the Prime Minister did in his wireless broadcast to the nation before the Election. The statements to which the Noble Lord referred where those I made at the Election and there is no one of them that I would withdraw. My hon. Friends and I at the Admiralty, in the course of the Labour Government, began to improve the defensive arm in large repairs of battleships and battle cruisers. That does not alter the statement which I have made that they were the best armed ships in the world.
      Lord STANLEY: But it surely does prove that they were slightly out of date.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: At that moment they were not out of date. There was nothing about which to put the wind up the people. My own Government and my own colleagues had already initiated the improvement of the arm to which the Noble Lord has referred, but to use that as an attempt to frighten the whole community into giving a blank cheque to the Government to do what they liked, was sheer nonsense. I am prepared to-night to face charges on that matter which are sometimes hinted at against me. I am satisfied that, category by category, compared fleet by fleet, we had, as we have, the largest and most powerful and most efficient fleet in the world. That being so, let us look at what should be done in the matter now. Purely from the debating point of view, the Opposition are at this moment in a position of some difficulty because the mind and the view of so many people in the nation are clouded over by the feeling of impending crisis in Europe, but the more we look at it from that point of view the more we are convinced that we are right when we say that the whole question of what is required in the armaments policy depends upon the foreign policy of the Government. I agree with what the Chancellor of the Exchequer said last week that we have to remember the

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      foreign policies of other countries, but the foreign policies of other countries must surely be largely influenced by the extent and the strength of the lead which is given by the Government as the first and most powerful nation and Empire in the world. It is from that point of view that we say that the Government have been so much to blame during the past four-and-a-half years in allowing the situation to develop as far as it has in the direction which now appears to be so very dangerous to the peace of Europe.
      Allowing for that danger, we want to know whether the Government, in submitting to the House this enormous Estimate which promises further and unlimited additional Estimates for the Navy, are relying in this matter upon taking purely separate action, or whether they are basing the strength that they require upon the principle of pooled security through the collective system of the League. If they are relying upon the latter, I say say here very strongly that even at this moment there is not the slightest need for panic and for emergency building of the kind indicated today. It is no good saying what was indicated by the Noble Lord, when he referred to the rise in the cost of building and materiel. He said that contracts had cost more than was anticipated I was rather interested in the word "anticipated." If they have cost more in the particular year, it is because the Government and the Admiralty have most deliberately speeded up. I have always found in the past that, at the end of the financial year, one always showed a little less in payments on account of construction than had appeared, but on this occasion the Government have managed to speed up very well. We are spending on new construction, within a pound or two, on this Vote, £14,000,000. When I was listening to that statement this afternoon, I felt, in relation to the political situation as we know it to-day, that there was no real ground for this panic if we relied upon pooled security, and if we had regard to the other fleets of the Powers who are in the League, who are willing to support the League and can be relied upon to do so.
      Viscountess ASTOR: Which are they which can be relied upon?
      An HON. MEMBER: The United States.
      Viscountess ASTOR: It is not in the League. I wanted to know which the right hon. Gentleman thought are the Powers which can be so relied upon.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: Let us look at that matter for a moment. If we are to have the truth from the Government, we are entitled to ask: "Against whom are you arming?" I should be very glad if the Noble Lady could answer that question from her point of view. There are four major non-League Powers and the United States of America is one of them. I wish the Noble Lady could persuade them to be a little more active in securing peace. We might do well to send her on a mission. There remain Japan, Germany and—perhaps doubtful now—Italy. Which country are we arming against? What are the naval constructions that we are arming against and what are the comparable constructions that we can put against them? I do not want to be unfair to the Noble Lord, but we ought to have an answer to that question from the Government. I should be glad to know whether the Noble Lord contemplates running a naval war in the East. Does he? Do the Government? Are they arming in that direction? I should like to know.
      Let us look at the case of Germany, which is so much in the minds of the public this week. What is her naval strength in relation to ours, plus France and plus the navies, very small, I agree, of the other countries who are supporting the League and who are interested in the narrow waters of Western Europe? Would you put it higher at the present time than 250,000 tons? We are entitled to know. I am aware that by one of the grossest acts of folly to which any administration ever put their hand, the signature of the Anglo-German Treaty of last year, Germany has the legal right to build, instead of to a maximum of 100,000 tons, to a maximum of 425,000 tons. When you made that treaty you must have imagined what the result was going to be. If you extend your cruiser fleet from 50 to 70 ships and go on with the present class of ship, you will have, within the next seven or eight years, a cruiser category in the British Fleet of 70 ships, with a total tonnage of not less than 540,000 tons, instead of a maximum total tonnage

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      of 339,000 tons, as laid down in the London Naval Treaty. That immediately postulates something else.
      Germany is at once allowed under the Treaty of last year to have 35 per cent. of that 200,000 tons increase in the British cruiser fleet. Directly she begins to build that increase, France will say, as the Noble Lord knows she said in almost the first debate in the Naval Affairs Committee of the Senate after the Treaty was signed, that she must build up to the increase of Germany. As soon as she does that, Italy says: "We must build up to the strength of France." I suppose that the Board of Admiralty will then come back here and say, "We must always have a two-Power Naval standard in the Mediterranean."
      Lord STANLEY: Does the right hon. Gentleman think that if it had not been for the Anglo-German Naval Treaty the Germans would not have built at all?
      Mr. ALEXANDER: No, I do not think so, and that is why I am so touched by our implicit faith that Hitler, having signed the agreement, will stop at it. We have had such a wonderful example during the last few days of how political leaders of the Hitler type keep their pledged word. How could the Government have imagined that entering into that Treaty was going to place an actual limit on the expansion of the German Navy? Against whom are you arming? You are arming against Germany. Certainly you are not arming against France. France is a League Power, and France, in common with half a dozen other League Powers, in connection with the Italo-Abyssinian dispute, had given all necessary assurances that if—
      Mr. W. ASTOR: Does the right hon. Gentleman suggest that there is no danger in the Far East?
      Mr. ALEXANDER: I do not say so at all. I have asked the Government to tell us whether they would contemplate a naval war in the East. It would be very interesting to have the answer to that question.
      Mr. ASTOR: Surely it does not lie with us.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: I think it would lie with us very much whether we chose to fight a naval battle in the East—
      Admiral of the Fleet Sir ROGER KEYES: Or put your tail between your legs and run away.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: That is what your Government did—[Interruption.] From all these interruptions it looks as if I am getting under your skin. That is exactly what your Government did over Manchukuo.
      Viscountess ASTOR: Would you have fought?
      Mr. ALEXANDER: I am always tempted to give way to the Noble Lady—
      Viscountess ASTOR: Answer the question.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: If I had had the opportunity of exercising any authority, I would certainly not have taken the 17 months of muddling futility that this Government took, finally leaving it until it was too late to take any effective action in support of collective security against Japan in the case of Manchukuo.
      Sir R. KEYES: Would you have fought?
      Mr. ALEXANDER: My own view, and that of many of my colleagues, which we are quite prepared to maintain, is that, if you will give the right lead to the League, and if you will give your lead effectively, first morally and then by economic sanctions, in the great majority of instances there never will be any question of having to resort to hostilities. It is the lack of "guts" that really leads to the whole problem. I am not going to be diverted from my point by constant interruptions. I am asking, against whom are you arming? Are you arming against Germany? On the actual strength of Germany in the naval sphere to-day you are not required, and it is not necessary, widely to expand the British Fleet. There is no question about that whatsoever. Take the combined naval strength of Great Britain and France to-day. Between them they have a naval strength of very nearly 2,000,000 naval tons, as compared with an available German tonnage of about 300,000. If you are really working to the policy of pooled security and a collective peace system through the League, there is no case for this wide expansion of naval expenditure which is proposed at the present time.

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      I intended to say a great deal more about this side of the question, but have been delayed by interruptions, and I do not want to take up too much of the time of the House. I would like to go on to two or three more detailed points. I heard with a good deal of pleasure the Noble Lord's statement that steps are being taken still further to improve the accommodation for boys entering for training in the Fleet, and I should also like to say that we are pleased to hear, and shall watch for the signs of it, his statement that promotions in the Fleet are being speeded up. That will be good news for the lower deck. I hope, however, that a few searching questions will be put by some of my hon. Friends as to what is happening in regard to promotion from the lower deck to commissioned rank. The Noble Lord will remember that during the time of the Labour Government we so amended and extended the general educational provisions that we were able to provide further facilities, and in consequence of that there were, in, I think, the year 1931–32, as many as 17 promotions from the lower deck to commissioned rank. I am sorry to say, however, that from my examination of the records since it appears that that is very seriously declining. Perhaps the Noble Lord will have his answers ready upon that point when my hon. Friends put their questions.
      Then I want to ask a question about the general position of officer entrants. I should like to hear, either from the Financial Secretary or from the Civil Lord, what has happened to the negotiations that were going on in the Admiralty after the consideration of the Bennett Committee's report. In case the Noble Lord may not be personally well acquainted with the position, I would like to point out to him that, as the Bennett Committee's report which I received did not satisfy me at all, I personally went to Dartmouth and interviewed the Captain Superintendent and the Headmaster with a view to getting an alternative to the report of the Bennett Committee, and I was able to persuade both of them that my views on the reconstruction of the curriculum and the mode of entry into Dartmouth were workable and sound. But to-day, instead of using, as I want to see used, the general expenditure of the State
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      in the provision of higher education resulting in a steady entry into the officer class of the output of our public system of education, the figures appear to show a rapid increase in the number of cadet entries from preparatory schools, which, although the whole cost of the training of these cadets is not borne by the parents, but in a considerable proportion by the State, perpetuates a system which leads to the recruitment of officers of the Navy entirely from one class in the State. We strongly object to that. We think that it is unsound in relation to the general educational provisions which the State otherwise has to make, and that it is maintaining a class distinction which ought not to be maintained. I should like to hear from the Parliamentary Secretary or the Civil Lord what has happened to the discussion which went on subsequently to the receipt of the Bennett Committee's report.
      With reference to the Noble Lord's remarks on Vote A and personnel, I am going to leave the main question to be dealt with by my hon. Friend the Member for North Camberwell (Mr. Ammon) when he speaks later, but I should be glad if the Noble Lord would in the meantime look up and see what has happened to the special economies which the Labour Government found it possible to make in regard to over-manning. I am not at all satisfied, as regards the actual ships to be manned at the present time, that the increases shown, and, according to the Noble Lord, to be shown in the current naval year, indicate reasonable economy in that matter. Again, has the Noble Lord paid anything like detailed attention to the cost of construction? If the Government are going on with their programme of expansion, I think it is vital in the interests of the taxpayer that we should have reasonable economy. Take, for example, the cost of building cruisers. I see that in the case of the new 5,220-ton class—I think it is the "Arethusa" class—on the one example that we have in which the complete expenditure on the ship is now available, the cost of building per ton is £26 or £27 more than the cost of building the 7,000-ton class. Why is that? Is there anything like a reasonable and effective check in these costs?
      I was interested to hear that the Government are prepared to spend more money on experiments. Having regard to

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      the dissertations we have had as to the wisdom or unwisdom of replacing capital ships, may I suggest that we spend a little more money on experiments in that direction? As I think the Noble Lord is aware, I should probably be very much on his side against some of the claims that are made against the Fleet by certain advocates of an entirely air policy, but I feel that people would be much happier if they knew something more from the results of actual experiment. It took a long time for the Admiralty—some years before I went there, all the time I was there, and, I think, even some time afterwards—before the present First Lord was able to see at last in the sky a wireless-controlled target which could really test out the anti-aircraft gun. That was a very great advance in actual experiment. Could not we have some experiments on the bombing of moving craft such as would give us a real answer to the claims which are being made? I hope the Noble Lord will give us some assurance that experiments are being developed in that direction.
      I should like also to ask whether, before this Debate is over, he will give us at least enough gleanings from the table of the London Conference to enable us to know whether it is intended to continue building these large-sized 9,000-ton 6-inch-gun cruisers, which are costing nearly as much as the 10,000-ton 8-inchgun class. I am not sure that there is any very special advantage in building vessels of that class. Will the Noble Lord tell us whether it is the policy of the Admiralty to continue doing so, or whether they are going to revert to ships of the 7,000 and 5,000-ton class, which will give equal service at a very much less cost?
      Will the Noble Lord also tell us more about the position of the oil fuel reserve, and what is the policy in relation to its replenishment? No one in the House has taken more interest in that matter than my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdare (Mr. G. Hall), who has again and again placed before the House able comments and reasoned recommendations as to the treatment of this matter. I should like to know whether the Admiralty, with the larger expenditure that is being provided this year, are going to make a bigger contribution, both to current steaming requirements and to the actual fuel reserve, from home-
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      produced oil. I believe that, if the Admiralty gave to the low temperature carbonisation plants an order of reasonable size at the present time, we could have a sense of greater security than from building up oil fuel reserves here, there and everywhere, that it would actually improve the flash-point of expansion for wartime requirements, and that it would give very great assistance to the needy industry of coal-mining in this country. Our fuel reserve in pre-War days lay in the coal mines of this country, and there is no reason at all, if this matter is properly handled, why our fuel reserve in regard to heavy fuel oil should not still lie in the mines of this country.
      On this question of the replacement of capital ships, I want the Admiralty to tell us why they propose to stick to 35,000 tons. The Board of Admiralty have very strong views on capital ships. The Noble Lord said he was going to speak on capital ships as a layman to laymen. I recognised the phraseology, with the accuracy of an Edison Bell record, of the defence that he put up for the capital ship. I could recognise it phrase by phrase and word by word.
      Lord STANLEY: I must have been an Admiral in past life.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: The Noble Lord admitted the extent to which he had read on the matter before he came to the Debate and he also seemed to be very anxious to impress us before he came to that passage on the personnel of the Board of Admiralty at present, and why we should rely upon their advice. I thought he was relying very whole-heartedly on it. I should like to know why it is necessary, even though America says "We will not budge," to stick at that figure. I do not believe it is necessary at all. We agreed to put before the consideration of the London Naval Conference in 1930, with agreement, a ship of 23,000 tons with 12-inch guns, a ship which the Board of Admiralty felt would make a workable and efficient ship properly defended and at a very great economy. The real nigger in the wood pile is America. Why should we bother about America? I am convinced that, if you were prepared to give a real and strong lead an a reduced size capital ship, all the other countries except America would follow

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      you. At any rate we should like to have the considered views of the Admiralty upon that suggestion.
      Even now I have not covered all the points which are rather full in my heart. If we are really going to get peace in the present crisis in Europe, it will only come by political means. You will not get peace, either temporary or permanent, merely by armaments. If you go to war you will still have to come to a political settlement. In order to give a lead towards a political settlement, it is necessary for a constituent member of the States of the League to be prepared to implement its obligations under the League, and we on these benches have made it perfectly plain that we will maintain efficiently such forces as are consistent with what is necessary for that purpose and no more. In regard to the naval provision, we say that from the moment we began adequately and regularly to replace wasting tonnage in 1929–30, the Fleet has been kept in a condition which can meet its obligations. No one can say that our relative security is inferior to-day to what it has been, except in so far as the Government have condoned and whitewashed the breaking of the Versailles Treaty by Herr Hitler by their signature of the Anglo-German Navy Treaty. When you look at that there is no reason at all why pooled security will not give you sufficient strength. In my view we are acting in a panicky fashion. We have misled the people by the announcement of the Government in the matter and if we would only give a real lead for political methods for peace we should secure it.
      5.50 p.m.
      Sir ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR: I understand that the House will be given another opportunity of expressing its grief and deep sense of loss at the death of the great sailor who was carried to-day to his last resting place. I am sure there was no part of the Noble Lord's speech in which he so fully spoke the whole mind of the House as when he paid his eloquent tribute to Lord Beatty and expressed our condolence with his family.
      I should like in the first place to register, for the third time since this Parliament met, my protest at the absence
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      from this House of the First Lord of the Admiralty, when Estimates, so large as these and so greatly increased since last year, are before us. I think that a great spending Department bringing before us these great Estimates should be represented by its chief. There is in these Estimates an increase of £10,000,000, following upon an increase last year, if you include the Supplementary Estimates, of £8,000,000, and I think the First Lord ought to be here to answer for these increases.
      Mr. TINKER: Does the right hon. Gentleman mean that no Cabinet Minister should be in the House of Lords?
      Sir A. SINCLAIR: No; but the heads of the chief spending Departments should be in the House of Commons. My objections are not at all removed by the presence of the Noble Lord. I am not at all sure that they are not intensified by the fact that he is in charge of the Estimates. His obvious keenness and devotion to the interests of the Service, the charm and lucidity of his speeches and the grasp that they show of the business of the Admiralty and his unfailing courtesy to his fellow Members of the House, lull them into acceptance of a most objectionable arrangement. I hope the House will make its opinion felt that the heads of the chief spending Departments ought to be in the House of Commons.
      I do not want to discuss broad questions of policy to-day. I come here a layman, surrounded by experts—the Noble Lord, the right hon. Gentleman who spoke last and many Service Members whom I see around me. I want to speak not as an expert but as a representative of the taxpayers, who have to pay the bill, and no small bill, for the Navy, and I want to ask whether we are getting value for our money. We are told both that the effective strength of the Navy has declined and that deficiencies have accumulated. Unlike the right hon. Gentleman who spoke last, I am not going to deny that these deficiencies exist, but I want to know why they have been allowed to accumulate. I am going to dismiss one reason. It is not because this House has stinted money to the Navy. In the last 10 years we have voted £550,000,000. I do not think it would be fair to make a comparison between the last 10 years and the

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      10 years before the War. I would rather take five years, because it was in the five years before the War that the greatest expenditure was made to make our Fleet fit to face the danger of the increasing German Navy. Then the pace was set by the German Fleet, but powerful Fleets were also possessed by France, Italy and Austria. There was no League of Nations then and no system of collective security. Yet then we were satisfied with a proportion of eight to five against the most powerful fleet, with the exception of our own, that the world had ever seen. Now the German Fleet is at the bottom of the sea. Their strength, at any rate in capital ships, is negligible. Pooled security is the professed policy of the Government. Yet in the last five years we have spent not less than in the five years before the War, when we were building against this great German peril. We have actually spent £40,000,000 more than in the five years before the War, although the personnel of the Navy has declined by a third and the tonnage by a half.
      It is true that money does not go as far now as it did then. The wholesale price level now is just about the same as it was before the War but wages are up by about 65 per cent. and the cost of living is up about 40 per cent. Also it is true that the non-effective Vote has greatly increased since before the War. It is actually about £6,000,000 higher this year than it was in 1914–15. No argument which does not allow for these factors is worth consideration. But the Estimates for this year are more than £18,000,000 higher than they were in 1914–15, although we have only 15 capital ships and none building, as against 68 and 14 building in 1914–15. We have now only 54 cruisers and 12 building against 110 and 17 building in 1914–15. We have now only 169 destroyers against 322 in 1914–15 and only 51 submarines against 74 in 1914. I was astonished to hear the Noble Lord say we must be completely satisfied with our 169 destroyers and our 40 sloops to deal with the submarine menace. When the War came, we had that great fleet of battleships of which the Noble Lord spoke ready to withstand any hostile concentration, and yet we were within an ace of defeat—of defeat by submarines, although we started the War with 322 destroyers. Not only, therefore, are we getting many fewer ships and many fewer men for
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      30 per cent. more money than in the year before the War—against that we should indeed be prepared to make a liberal allowance for the higher scale of expenditure on non-effective Votes and in the other directions to which I have alluded—but also, whereas in 1914 our Navy was in readiness at a moment's notice—thanks very largely to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill), who had been First Lord for four years—to take up its battle stations and command the seas, to-day we are told that, in spite of the colossal expenditure which we have authorised from year to year for the past five or 10 years, it is in a state of steadily declining efficiency and that deficiencies are accumulating.
      I am afraid it is true that these deficiencies are accumulating. That is where I part company, to some extent, with the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander), who delivered such a characteristically robust and interesting speech, in which he made a strong declaration that he and his friends were determined to see that the efficiency of the British Fleet was maintained. I think that these deficiencies undoubtedly do exist. I know that they exist in such matters as ammunition, equipment and stores, and even as regards the strength of the Fleet. If the right hon. Gentleman maintained the Fleet—and to do him credit, I think he did—at an adequate strength when he was First Lord of the Admiralty, there is a clear case for an increase in that strength, having regard to the fact that increases have taken place or are taking place in the fleets of every important naval nation in the world. Moreover, the right hon. Gentleman himself mentioned two or three directions in which he thought that additional expenditure was justified and necessary. For example, he mentioned scientific investigations. I entirely agree with him. He also mentioned the provision of oil, about which I entirely agree with him, but in regard to which I am going to suggest an alternative method to the Noble Lord to that which the right hon. Gentleman proposed. It is clear that these deficiencies exist, and we have to face the fact.
      If it costs less, as it did before the War, to build up the mightiest armada the world has ever seen than, to quote the White Paper,

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      "to lead the world towards disarmament by our example of unilateral disarmament,"
      there must have been in recent years waste and inefficiency in the expenditure of the money which Parliament has voted. It was not by lavish expenditure in every direction that Lord Fisher created the great British Fleet before the War, but by scrapping what was obsolete, by concentrating upon essentials, and by economy, rigid and ruthless. Let me take, for example, Vote 8. We are asked to vote this year £20,000,000 for material and contract work, as contrasted with £18,000,000 in 1913–14, actually £2,000,000 more for a tonnage of 1,000,000 as against 2,000,000 tons in the year which I have mentioned, although there is little building going on now as compared with the rate of building in 1913–14, when we were intensively building up the great, modern Dreadnought fleet. The Admiralty Office, too, costs two and a-half times what it cost in the year before the War. It is, therefore, our duty to ask the Admiralty to explain why, with an expenditure absolutely higher, and, relatively to the size of the Navy before the War, enormously higher than before the War, we are told that the efficiency and defence value of the Fleet have steadily declined.
      There is indeed one important item of expenditure which I have not mentioned—the Fleet Air Arm. It is £3,000,000, as compared with a much smaller, though not quite negligible, amount spent before the War by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping when he was laying its foundations, as he did with such keenness and thoroughness, and building up the Royal Naval Air Service. Here again, I cannot help doubting whether we should not get greater efficiency and economy in the protection of our trade routes, particularly in the narrow seas, if the burden of defence were more evenly distributed between sea and air. The Admiralty, for example, still cling to their old demand for 70 cruisers, yet, surely, it must be apparent that a given force of cruisers, equipped with catapults and aeroplanes, must be much more efficient for the purpose of finding and destroying commerce raiders than cruisers not so equipped. Therefore, if 70 was the right number 12 years ago, the number must be smaller now, when our cruisers are equipped with aeroplanes and catapults.
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      Moreover, in considering the Admiralty's explanation of these huge peace-time Estimates, I studied the Annual Fleet Return. I found that our superiority over the fleets of other European naval Powers, even after so many years of what is called unilateral disarmament, was at least as great as it was before the War. More particularly is this the case with regard to battleships. The Noble Lord made a defence of battleships, and, in answer to the challenge of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough, who said that it sounded to him like something he had heard before, observed that perhaps he was an admiral in his previous life. That may be the explanation, but it means that it must have been nearly 50 years ago when he had that experience, and most of the arguments that he advanced would undoubtedly have been advanced by an admiral who lived 50 years ago.
      Lord STANLEY: I could hardly advance an argument against aircraft of 50 years ago because aircraft did not exist.
      Sir A. SINCLAIR: That is true. The admirals then would have advanced these arguments, and they would have been right. But it the advent of the aeroplane during the past 50 years which has falsified those arguments which were so excellent 50 years ago. The Noble Lord said that other countries are building them. It is true that other countries in Europe are building them, but it is remarkable, according to the Annual Fleet Return, that neither Japan nor the United States of America are building them at the present time. As regards the countries of Europe we have an overwhelming superiority.
      Lord STANLEY: I am not sure what America has done, kit Japan has certainly modernised her old battleships.
      Sir A. SINCLAIR: We are modernising our battleships, but was talking about new battleships, which neither Japan nor America is building. They may not build battleships under the terms of the Naval Treaty but they are not even projecting them. We are the first of the three great naval Powers who halve definitely declared to the world that we are going to build two new battleships to replace old ones. Moreover, the Government have declared their attachment to the principle of

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      pooled security. Before the War that policy found embryonic expression in the small scale agreement with France under which we pooled security in the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Surely this is a direction in which we ought to be able now to lighten the burden on our Navy and on our taxpayers by coming to agreements with our fellow-members of the League in regard to the disposition of our naval forces, just as before the War we came to that agreement with France in regard to the Mediterranean and the North Sea. That agreement might also be extended to the protection of the trade routes.
      But the Government will rightly say that we must not think only of Europe. Nowhere has it been more strongly argued than from the front Opposition Bench, that our obligations as Members of the League of Nations are worldwide, and that we must discharge them in the Far East as well as at home. The line of thought led me to look up in the Estimates the statement which is headed:
      "Statement showing the cash contributions from India, the Dominions and the Colonies which are credited to Navy Votes."
      In the Estimates there are two pages allowed for this statement, but, unfortunately, there is only one entry, and that is "India, £100,000." Have the Dominions been consulted? No mention of consultation with the Dominions was in the White Paper. They ought to have been consulted especially about our naval commitments in the Far East, where obviously they are so directly concerned. They contributed generously to the effort which we made before the War. Now their obligations are greater. They are not only Dominions of the Empire. They are fellow-members of the League, and they have their obligations to uphold the Covenant of the League and to contribute to collective security. I want to know from the Noble Lord whether the views of the Dominions have been sought. Have they been brought into effective consultation, have they been asked to contribute and do they accept any share at all in our Imperial responsibility to contribute to pooled security under the League of Nations?
      I come to the question, which the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough raised in the latter part of his speech, of oil fuel reserves. He
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      joined in the pressure which is being brought upon the Government from a good many directions both here and in another place to develop and subsidise the production of oil from coal. I am not an expert in this matter—I think that the right hon. Gentleman will admit that he is not an expert on the question—and the last thing that I want to do is to attempt to dogmatise about it. But I am very doubtful about this costly policy of the production of oil from coal. My attention has been drawn to a paper read by one of the greatest experts in this country on this subject, Professor Bone, at the Institute of Fuel last month. He pointed out that although nature has not put oil under the soil of Britain, we can do it ourselves, and at a cost which will be about one-fifth of the cost of producing oil from coal. Moreover, plants for producing oil from coal would be extremely vulnerable and a fair target for hostile aircraft. I understand that these technologists are unanimous in rejecting the case for oil from coal as an economic proposition. They believe in it even less as a defence measure. I referred just now to the meeting of the Fuel Institute at which Professor Bone read his paper. I understand that the experts who took part in the discussion following the paper unanimously agreed with Professor Bone's arguments. I hope that the Admiralty in considering these conflicting views will resist the pressure from the very powerful interests—I do not say that my right hon. Friend the Member for Hillsborough has the slightest connection with them—which for their own reasons are urging the Government to adopt that policy.
      The Noble Lord in the concluding passage of his speech said that whatever armaments can or cannot do they can prevent defeat. That sounded a little like an echo from the past. Our fathers, and perhaps the same may be true of some of our present elder statesmen, when they discussed these grave questions of foreign policy and national defence before the War, had two objectives in mind. Their first objective was the preservation of peace and their second objective was, in case peace was broken, to make sure of victory in war. Now we of the War and post-War

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      generations know that victory in war is an illusion, and that the destruction of life and property if we have another war would be on such a scale, that it would wreck civilisation as we know it. The First Lord of the Admiralty in introducing the Estimates last year used the words: "Victory would be dust and ashes." Consequently, we are no longer dazzled by the hope of victory. The gap between the professional, naval or military view and the political or civilian view has widened. We are concerned only to avert what must be the hideous, and what may be as far as our generation is concerned, the complete and final, catastrophe of war, and therefore to base our policy on the Covenant of the League of Nations and measure our armaments by the requirements of collective security.
      6.18 p.m.
      Mr. CHURCHILL: I was glad to hear my Noble Friend preface his remarks with a reference to the loss which the Navy and the country have sustained by the death of Lord Beatty. That great warrior and sea captain, whom I knew so well and admired so profoundly, has passed away. Long will his memory and his characteristic figure he cherished by the Royal Navy, and long will the deeds of Beatty and his battle cruiser "Lion" stir the blood of the British race in every quarter of the globe.
      I am not in general disagreement, in principle at any rate, with the main points of the speech of my right hon. Friend opposite. It is very puzzling that the expense of the Navy should be so high and that there is apparently a much smaller return in ships, men and new construction compared with what existed before the Great War. I do not think my right hon. Friend laid sufficient emphasis upon the increase in the pay, and the non-effective Votes, or attributed full value to that most important factor, the decline in the purchasing power of money. Nevertheless, when all has been said and done, I do say that there is a case to which the House of Commons should, in the interests of the highest economy of the Service, pay attention. In this connection it is odd, and it certainly would have been thought odd in any previous Parliament, that the two Ministers responsible for the Navy and the Royal
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      Air Force, both in the prime of life and blessed with safe constituencies, should have withdrawn them selves from the House of Commons, w rich has to vote the money, and betaken themselves to those more august and ceremonious spheres in which they now reside.
      This afternoon I should like to touch upon a few of the larger and more general aspects of our naval policy, some of which have been mentioned by my Noble Friend and others to which he was not able to refer. The foundation of British naval policy is the acceptance of the principle of parity with the United States of America, not only in battleships but over the whole range of the Fleet. We are all agreed upon that, and that decision once taken ought to exclude the idea of naval rivalry between the two countries. It certainly ought not to be followed by a meticulous measuring of swords, as it were, at recurring conference tables. The British view is, and has long been, that the, United States Navy, whatever it rely become, is no cause of anxiety to us. On the contrary, many people will feel, and it is no exaggeration to say so, that the stronger the United States Navy becomes, the surer are the foundations of. peace throughout the world. I trust, therefore, that the principle of parity which is really the principle of non-competition, will be interpreted in the most liberal and flexible manner on both sides of the Atlantic, and that the two great branches of the English-speaking peoples will not seek to hamper one another in making whatever may be the best possible arrangements for their respective naval defence.
      For instance, it might well happen that for a period of years the circumstances of the United States require her to have temporarily a Fleet stronger than we should consider necessary for our quite different requirements. In that case we should accept that fact with good will and without concern, and we should feel under no obligation to build up to the exceptional strength which the United States might require to have. Similarly, periods might occur when we should be involved in difficulties and pre-occupations which would lead us to require a larger Fleet than it was convenient for the United States to maintain. In that case we should have not the slightest objection if they built up to our exceptional

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      construction or even if they just went beyond it. This is a matter which the two countries must settle from the point of view of their own special needs and danger. I believe that in effect that is pretty well where we stand to-day, and I congratulate the Admiralty upon the excellent understanding and accord which has been reached between the British and American Admiralties and which has been manifested in the closest and most cordial co-operation throughout the present Naval Conference.
      Never again, I hope, shall we revert to that most illogical and absurd mood of the Naval Conference of 1929 when the then Prime Minister plumed himself upon having prevented the United States from building a new battleship which they desired to build. I wish they had that battleship to-day. I should feel safer for it. I wish still more that we had not been hampered by the Treaty of London in providing ourselves with the cruisers which are necessary to bring our food supplies across the ocean and with the flotillas which are needed for that identical purpose in the narrow seas. I hope there will some day be a Naval Conference where representatives of the United States and Great Britain will be complaining of each other that they are not doing their respective duties in keeping their navies up to their proper level.
      The last six years since the Treaty of London, upon which the right hon. Gentleman opposite looks back with so much pride—
      Mr. ALEXANDER: Hear, hear!
      Mr. CHURCHILL: Impenitence may not be a virtue, but it must be regarded as a fact. The last six years have been very unfortunate for us. We are in a far worse position for dealing with our food supplies and with protection of the narrow seas than we should have been if the ideas which are generally accepted now had generally prevailed before. It is said that although we do not mind the United States building whatever she may require, it may start Japan upon large increases in her Navy, and this would react upon us. There may be something in that argument, but not much. More than half the revenues of Japan are spent upon military purposes, and although for sentimental reasons they may not relish the ratio of 5.5.3, I
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      do not believe that they have much margin for greatly increased naval construction. Therefore, it seems to me that if the United States wish to increase the size of their Fleet in any particular class of vessel, even if beyond what we find necessary, we should not be led by the possible Japanese reaction to object to the course which they think fit to take.
      There are only three Powers in the world, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States, which continue to maintain regular battle fleets. They are, happily, situated at the opposite corners of the globe, divided from each other by immense expanses of ocean. If any one of those three Fleets were to traverse these ocean spaces in order to attack another without having some enormously strong fortified harbour close at hand, that attacking fleet would find itself at an almost immeasurable disadvantage, and without a base at hand it could certainly not maintain itself against a fleet defending its homeland for any length of time. The vast wastes of the Pacific Ocean give a considerable measure of security to the main interests of the United States and Japan. Singapore, our most easterly Fleet base, is about as far from Japan as Portsmouth is from New York. Therefore, I have never been able to feel that either here or in the two other leading naval countries there ought to be any great anxiety about the strength of their battle fleets. They do not want to get at each other, and if they did they could not without at least a decade of preparation.
      This, I trust, disproves of the suggestion which we so often hear made, that Singapore is an aggressive or provocative feature in our strategic position. Singapore never is, and never can be, an offensive base against Japan. It is a defensive protection for the British Empire, and as such it rightly takes a high place in our thoughts. I was closely concerned with Lord Beatty after the Great War in the decision which brought Singapore into existence. It seemed to me then, and it is none the less now, that Singapore is a guard for the Indian ocean and an indispensable means of our discharging our duty of protecting the Indian Empire. But, in addition, it is a link or a steppingstone with Australia and New Zealand, which will enable us to cover them and, if necessary, proceed to their aid in an

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      emergency. Considering what Australia and New Zealand did for us in the Great War it is the sacred duty of the Mother country to place herself in a position to offer them this protection. And this protection can be discharged in no other way. I hope, therefore, there will be no misconception or misrepresentation about the purpose for which the fleet base at Singapore is being constructed, and that the Admiralty will persevere with it with all possible speed.
      Now I come to the question which formed the staple part of the speech of my Noble Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty. He spoke of the value of the battle fleet and of the battleship as an instrument of war. We had a speech the other day, to which most of us listened with the greatest pleasure from the right hon. Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George), and although I agreed with much that he said—especially the kindly references to myself—I was surprised that he did not seem to understand what the battle fleet did in the Great War. If we had not been able to place in good time a superior battle fleet at Scapa Flow, or if that battle fleet had been defeated in a great action, the German Navy could have sallied forth into the oceans of the world and immediately cut us off from our food supplies and trade, and starved us into submission. If they had thought it worth while they could have invaded this country, or have taken bases on the Western side for the convenience of their operations in intercepting our vital trade. I was surprised that the right hon. Member for Carnarvon Boroughs did not sufficiently realise the supreme service rendered during the War by the British battle fleet. Without it the War could not have continued for a month; we should have been reduced by famine to subjugation.
      It was an extraordinary sensation to see how the placing of a superior battle fleet at Scapa Flow instantaneously and automatically dominated all the waters of the globe. German commerce vanished from the seas, while our merchant ships sailed to and fro in a security so great that an additional insurance rate of 1 per cent. covered the war risks for a long period of time. The very powerful German fleet, one of the finest features of naval discipline and efficiency ever seen,
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      remained in its harbours, content with the command of the Baltic, and never dared to do more than make occasional darts and raids of no major strategic significance. Unless the German fleet had been willing to challenge a fleet action and fight it out to the end and were successful in that action, they had no other choice. They never were willing, and I think rigs t]y, for all their valour and military qualities, to make a main trial of strength, and in consequence they were forced to submit year after year to the slow and remorseless pressure of the blockade which ultimately played a predominant part in the final result of the War. Therefore, it seems to me absurd that people should ask whether a superior battle fleet has any utility in naval strategy merely because they found that for m my months in the War it remained stationary in harbour. Great preparations have to be taken before the most powerful and Valuable engines of war can be launched on the open seas.
      But the question arises whether the new conditions which have arisen since the War have not rendered the large battleship so vulnerable that it can no longer serve as the foundation of naval power. The Noble Lord asked, what is a battleship? I would answer that a battleship is an inexpugnable floating battery which used to be built of oak and now is built of steel. Its effectiveness depends not on avoiding being hit but on being capable of withstanding severe battering. The first requisite of a battleship, or indeed of any ship of war, is that it should keep afloat, and the second that it should carry the most powerful battery at sea. The qualities of a battleship might well be considered in the following order: first, armour and internal subdivision; second, guns; and, third, speed. I do not suppose that everyone will agree on these priorities, but I believe they will be found to have some sense behind them. Up to the present it has been found possible to construct battleships which will stand an enormous amount of pounding from modern armour-piercing shells and also sustain two or three under-water explosions by torpedoes without ceasing to be able to steam and fight. We saw what tremendous pressure the German battle cruisers, much more stiffly built than our own battle cruisers which Lord

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      Fisher designed, took at the Battle of Jutland, and we also saw the "Queen Elizabeth" battleship, which we built, resist the heaviest fire that could be directed upon her by four or five of the largest German battleships without sustaining any damage which affected her fighting efficiency.
      Rear-Admiral Sir MURRAY SUETER: Will the right lion. Gentleman tell the House what happened to the "Marlborough" when she was struck by a torpedo at the battle of Jutland?
      Mr. CHURCHILL: I have not in my mind at the moment exactly the fate of every one of the ships engaged at the battle of Jutland, but my recollection is that the "Marlborough," which was the only ship that was struck by a. torpedo, remained in action and kept on steaming. I do not however see the relevance of that to the point I was making. Altogether, I say that in the sphere of gunfire nothing seems to have happened since the War which invalidates the battleship, but the size of the torpedoes—and here perhaps I am getting into somewhat more happy relations with my hon. and gallant Friend, with whom I worked for so many years and with whom I should never like to lose touch—the size of torpedoes and their bursting charge have been greatly increased, and, above all, there is a new danger—and here I believe I am in close touch with my hon. and gallant Friend—heavy bombs from the air. It is admittedly difficult to decide the resisting powers of existing battleships to this new form of attack, though I am of opinion that it should be possible to give them a very great measure of defence, without seriously affecting their efficiency, against bombs from the air.
      What we now have to consider when we are asked in principle to agree to the construction of two new battleships, is whether they can be built in such a way as to withstand the new perils of air bombing and, secondly, whether their harbours and resting places can be furnished with defences of one kind or another which will deter and defeat any attack. These questions are far too complicated to be argued out here. A great deal can be said on both sides. There is a keen dispute, a fierce dispute, between sailors and airmen on the subject, in which civilians have intervened on both
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      sides with asperity and technicalities. I have seen it stated that the anti-aircraft guns of a battleship would fire away all their ammunition in one and a-half hours. Has anyone calculated how many aeroplanes would have to fly over that ship at the rate of 200 miles an hour in such a way as to offer a continuous stream of targets for an hour and a-half? Such a calculation would have to be worked -out before we can accept the argument as conclusive. The whole question of the usefulness of battleships turns on whether ships can be built whose structure will withstand modern cannon, air bombs and modern torpedoes, and whose paravanes and sweeping vessels can keep them clear of mines.
      There is also a controversy about large and small battleships, which should certainly be thrashed out, and about which I will only say that I believe it is generally admitted that the problem of making a comparatively unsinkable ship is much more likely to be solved in a large vessel than in a small vessel. I have stated these matters to the House not in any way to lead them to a conclusion. I am not at all opposed to the idea of a battleship being constructed as the Noble Lord seems to think, nor am I committed to such a principle at the present time, but it seems to be quite clear that there ought to be a thorough inquiry into these matters before we commit ourselves to the construction of new battleships or new large battleships. After the War, in 1919, we had a Parliamentary inquiry into this very question. I was a member of it, with Mr. Bonar Law and other Ministers. We sat for some months, and the conclusion which I reached—if my memory serves me aright there were several reports—was that the Admiralty had made out their case at that date. We therefore continued to build battleships, the idea at that time being to build four battleships of 45,000 tons. Owing to our agreement at Washington with the United States, that was converted into the two battleships of 35,000 tons now represented by the "Nelson" and the "Rodney," which, as the right hon. Gentleman opposite truly said, are incomparably the strongest war vessels in the world. The view which was taken by that committee has also apparently been confirmed by the naval science of every other important naval Power, and

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      there is a great deal, though not everything, to be said for the consensus of opinion.
      But my point is that this is not a matter which the Admiralty ought to settle for itself, especially when there are very great differences of naval opinion both upon the size of battleships—the main principle—and still more when there is this clear difference between officers of the sea arm and officers of the new arm of the air. I was surprised to hear that the First Lord, speaking in another place, seemed to take it for granted that the whole of this principle was settled. I am sure there should be a re-examination of the whole problem. That is something on which Parliament ought to insist, not at all for the purpose of obstructing anything that it is necessary should be done, but with a view to satisfying itself and the public.
      I see no reason why this inquiry should not contain one or two independent persons, although naturally it must be a matter of secrecy. Moreover, although I will not say there is plenty of time, there is time, because, as I pointed out, the Government do not propose that these ships shall actually be built—although no doubt some preliminary work will be done—until 1937. Therefore, my first suggestion to the Government and to the Noble Lord is that there should be a fresh secret inquiry into the technical and tactical issues involved in sanctioning new battleships.
      I come now to cruisers. My right hon. Friend opposite has spoken a great deal about the little value we seem to be getting for our money. We certainly have spent a great deal of money on cruisers since the War, but I think the explanation of that resides very largely in the trammels of treaties in which we have, for good or ill, been bound. The Washington Treaty prescribed 10,000 tons and 8-inch guns as the absolute top limit for cruisers. So of course everybody, the Japanese in the van, at once took up that limit and endeavoured to build the most powerful vessel they could within those limits. The result has been—I hope I do not speak with disrespect—a monstrosity of naval architecture. The 8-inch gun cruisers violate almost every principle of
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      naval construction. They are very expensive, for they cost almost as much as the "Lion" or the "Tiger"; they are very weak ships, with little or no armour; they carry many hundreds of men for whom no proper protection is provided; they each present an enormous silhouette; their great speed can be shorn away by a single shot in the forehand on or below the water-line—in fact they violate every principle.
      There is a very sound rule, although I admit it is only a rough-and-ready one, which I learned years ago from those masters of naval design. Lord Fisher and Sir Philip Watts, that a warship ought to be able to withstand the battery of as big a gun as she carries herself. I think that on reflection it will be found that that is a very rough-and-ready guide to the symmetry and proportion of naval design. These 8-inch gun cruisers could not stand up to each other's fire, once it became effective, for even a few minutes. In fact, they are really not built for war purposes, but are built to conform to the artificial conditions of a treaty. I am sure that if we had had freedom of design such as we used to enjoy, the Admiralty would have been able to create far more serviceable vessels, and the strictures of my right hon. Friend would not need to be so severe. That which I have been saying about these 8-inch gun cruisers does not apply so much to the later class of United States 8-inch gun cruisers, which were built after the bulk of ours were completed—so that the United States were able to profit from the mistakes which we had made—and are very much stronger internally. Altogether this chapter is a very melancholy one in the history of the British Navy. There is, however, one thing for which the 8-inch gun cruiser is admirably adapted, and it is the destruction of commerce. She is the most powerful destroyer of commerce that can be imagined, but that is not much consolation to the Power which, above all others, has commerce to be destroyed.
      Even worse is the chapter since the London Treaty. I hope to rally the right hon. Gentleman opposite to some repentance, however tardy. Let me at least not be daunted by his signs of refusal. In the last six British programmes that have been presented to Parliament, we have not added to the

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      Fleet a gun over G-inches in calibre, that is to say, a gun which fires a 100 lb. shot, a very small gun as naval ordnance goes. In the last six programmes we have not added to the Fleet a gun larger than that. Relatively to other Powers, we have thus been steadily falling back in our naval. position, and as these Six latest programmes govern the future—govern certainly the next three or four years—we are in an unfortunate position whatever we now do. For instance, in these last six programmes we have added in the aggregate 17,600 lbs. to the weight of our broadside in new ships. France has added nearly 49,000 lbs.; Italy nearly 40,000 lbs.; and Germany nearly 30,000 lbs. to their broadsides in the period of the last six British programmes. It is worth noting, however, although it is not strictly relevant to my point, that the Japanese broadside during these six British programmes has increased only by 9,000 lbs. I am not contending that the broadside is the only test of naval power, but it is a very good test, a very searching and important test of the relative strengths of fleets.
      Those figures which I have had collected for me with all the care I can give to such matters, give an idea as to how much weaker our fleet will be in three or four years' time relatively to the Fleets of European nations than it is now. We would not have to go on very long like that to be decidedly outclassed. I am not suggesting for a moment that there is need for panic in respect of the Navy. Never have I done that—not at the election—but it is quite clear that the present strength—I am not speaking of cruisers only, but of the whole Fleet—will undergo a marked diminution relatively to other Powers in the next three or four years whatever we do, and those three or four years will certainly be among the most critical in the history of Europe.
      It is for this reason that I specially urged the other day that we should have the largest possible increase in our destroyer flotillas, because these certainly can be obtained in a comparatively short period of time, whereas decay in our cruiser strength can only be repaired gradually. I was not entirely satisfied with the answer of my Noble Friend on that subject, but perhaps he is not entirely prepared to give at this time the answer which he will give later on in the
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      session, and I am prepared not to press the matter any further at the moment. But I suggest that under the Anglo-German Naval Treaty, Germany may be in possession of a very large submarine force in the near future and certainly by the end of 1937, for it is absolutely within their capacity to execute that. I suggest that we are entitled for the most precise assurance that the destroyer and flotilla force at our disposal will be sufficient to cope with such an attack whether there is any reason to expect it in policy or not. I hope that this is not the last word we shall hear on this subject.
      There is another point which, I think, is to be regretted so far as this Anglo-German Treaty is concerned. There is no doubt that if we were engaged in war with any Power which had a considerable number of powerful cruisers in the oceans no matter how many cruisers we had—even if we had 100—we should have to rely, at any rate in part, upon convoys to bring our food cargoes in from South America and from Australasia. The kind of ships which are invaluable for convoy work would have been vessels like the "Lion" and "Tiger," which we have had to throw away, and all those older classes of dreadnoughts which we have had to discard, or may be compelled to discard, under our treaty engagements. There are also, as the Noble Lord suggested, a large number of old destroyers which it might be very convenient to keep in being in spite of new ones being built. There is general determination I gather, or there was last year, not to scrap any more old ships but to keep them on what was called the "Mother Bank" near Portsmouth, where they could be kept for a case of emergency.
      There is a great value to our country in having a materiel reserve, because probably we who live in this island are capable of expanding our supply of seamen much more rapidly than any other country. Therefore, I say that this decision to keep old ships—for instance, there is the case of the "Effingham" and the "Frobisher" which the Admiralty decided not to scrap—is a very wise one, and I am glad it has been reached and sorry it was not reached before. But now see how the Anglo-German Treaty cuts across that policy. Under that treaty Germany is entitled to build one-third of the tonnage of our total fleet. So far as

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      I am aware there is no distinction between the obsolete tonnage which is retained and the new tonnage. By what I can only regard as a lamentable oversight no provision was made in regard to obsolete tonnage. Therefore, if we keep these old vessels—and the question is one that is bound to arise—by that very act we authorise German construction of new vessels of one-third of those vessels' weight, and that brand new German tonnage is probably equal not to one-third but to more than one-half of the value of the old ships we keep. I thought this treaty deplorable in its diplomatic aspect, but here is this very unfortunate technical feature to which I have had to refer.
      I have only one other point to make to the House, and it is in connection with the Fleet Air Arm. On the question of commerce protection, my right hon. Friend opposite spoke of the greatly improved power of cruisers caused by their having aeroplanes which they catapult from the deck. I am sorry that my Noble Friend was not able to tell us that there would be some aircraft carriers constructed for trade protection. The difficulty in protecting trade and ridding the seas of hostile cruisers is to find them. Once they can be found it should be easy to direct a more powerful vessel upon them. I remember well how we had to concentrate 30 ships to catch the "Emden." Once she was located one vessel was enough to sink her in an hour. With these new vessels and aircraft an enormous range of vision and search is open, and consequently great relief may be given to our commerce protection cruisers and a great measure of security to our trade as it traverses the wastes of the sea. I hope we shall hear something further from the Government on this point, which may well be productive of saving in expenditure as well as greater efficiency and security. I am not going to attempt to pronounce—especially with my hon. and gallant Friend the Admiral sitting so close behind me and my other hon. and gallant Friend in a tactical position on the other side—upon the vexed controversy of the Fleet Air Arm, but this I will say. If aeroplanes can be used, whether from cruisers or from trade protection aircraft carriers, in the protection of commerce, an important argument will have come into being for the unification of the whole
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      work of commerce protection and for its control by the Royal Navy.
      I have thought it may duty to make this contribution, to which the House has listened so kindly, and I hope it will not be taken in ill part by the Government or the Admiralty. It is difficult for laymen without access to official facts and figures to state a case on these matters without the risk of making mistakes. I shall certainly be glad to be corrected if I have made a mistake, and as long as I am corrected in the kindly and courteous manner of which I am sure my Noble Friend will be capable, nothing will give me greater pleasure than to learn that the Government have satisfactory answers.
      7.4 p.m.
      Sir R. KEYES: The right hon. Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) and I are so fully in agreement about matters of naval defence that I will not touch upon the survey that he has given to the House. The right hon. Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) enjoyed himself thoroughly, blew off a lot of steam, and heartily attacked the Government for winning the election on defence, but I would like to remind him of a speech that he made in Hull on 8th April, 1931, in which he said:
      "The people must not hide from themselves the fact that no nation in the world has yet made the relatively large contribution to actual disarmament that this country has made. I do not hesitate to say, therefore, that we have gone so far in disarmament that we must now say, that while we are abundantly willing to co-operate in further disarmament, it will depend to a very large extent upon how far the nations of the world are willing to go with us."
      That was said when war was remote, when the ten-year plan was in force, before Germany had a navy, and when our relations with Italy were excellent. But our armaments have been allowed to go so low that if the Government had not warned the country that it was time our defences were put in order they would have been unworthy to be called a Government. The right hon. Member took great pride in the London Treaty. I think my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping has disposed of that point satisfactorily. The right hon. Gentleman took great credit for the cruiser programme which, he said, the London Treaty made possible. What about the 14 cruisers which we are not allowed to

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      replace, but which are over age; what about the 40 destroyers which are over age but which we cannot replace under the London Treaty?
      Mr. ALEXANDER: That does not affect our security, because it applies to all other Powers.
      Sir R. KEYES: But it does affect our security. It forced us to scrap the "Tiger" and four "Iron Dukes" which as my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping said were admirably adapted to cover convoys across the sea. He asked the Noble Lady if she wanted to fight Japan. If we did, his Government made it impossible for us to do so by shutting down the base at Singapore. For three years I commanded the Fleet which was destined to go to the East in the event of trouble. The House may take it from me that it is impossible to operate a Fleet East of the Red Sea without a base at Singapore. Most of the money that was spent prior to the shutting down of the Singapore base was provided by New Zealand. Large sums came from Malaya and from Hong Kong—they realised the great need for that base.
      The Noble Lord covered a great deal of water in presenting these Estimates. I thoroughly agree with the Admiralty view which he expressed so clearly about battleships. I am aware that there are a few sailors, some having the rank of Admiral, who express a contrary view, in the Press as well as in the House. I would recommend hon. Members who are troubled by what they presumably regard as a controversy between experts to examine the credentials of the present Board of Admiralty, who are trusted by the Navy as well as by the Government, and to compare them with the credentials of their critics. There are certain tests which those seeking for guidance should put, such as practical knowledge of weapons, their employment and development, and, above all, the crucial test of responsibility in high command and in high administrative appointments. The present First Sea Lord was selected by Lord Beatty 25 years ago to be his Flag Captain and Chief of Staff. He stood alongside his inspired chief on the bridge of the "Lion" in all three major engagements in the North Sea. Apart from the test of ordeal by battle, he was always beside him at the council table,
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      and when Lord Beatty succeeded to the command of the Grand Fleet he, too, succeeded to a similar post and was present when the Grand Fleet kept the ring while measures were taken by other craft to destroy the unrestricted submarine warfare which was such a menace to this country. The right hon. Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) seemed to have forgotten that it was the presence of a fleet of battleships in the North Sea that made it possible to carry on and defeat the submarine menace.
      I have heard questions of submarine warfare and the value of submarines discussed very dogmatically by people who have never been in a submarine, or whose connection with submarines is perhaps 25 or 30 years old. There are, however, officers in the Service now occupying high positions who went through real submarine warfare in the North Sea, officers who were subjected to the anti-submarine devices of those days, hideous enough at that time, and who have since undertaken submarine work in the face of the anti-submarine devices to-day, which are far more formidable. They are fully alive to the value of a submarine in expert hands, but are in no doubt as to the limitations of the submarine. Among the submarine officers who, by their technical skill and daring built up that submarine service which had perforce to seek their targets in enemy waters in the Great War, there are several in high positions in the Navy now. There is one outstanding officer, who, incidentally, won the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry in a submarine, in the Marmora, who is now Second Sea Lord. As my Noble Friend reminded the House, the Third Sea Lord commanded the aircraft carrier squadron. He has not only had experience in operating aircraft in sea operations, but also has great experience in practical flying. A Junior Sea Lord has recently commanded an aircraft carrier. I mention all this to call the attention of the House to the varied experience of the present board, and I strongly recommend them to trust these sea officers, highly experienced men who have sailed over and under the sea and have flown in the air above the sea and thoroughly know its ever-changing moods. I suggest that hon. Members ought to turn a blind eye, and a deaf ear, to some

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      of the theoretical experts whose propaganda adds so greatly to the difficulties of those who have to bear the responsibility.
      I wish my Noble Friend could have given the House a little more information with regard to the experiments relating to the effect of bombing upon battleships. I realise that the experiments were secret, but I know that they have conclusively proved the fact that modern battleships have less to fear from the heaviest bombs dropped from the air than from the plunging fire of armour-piercing projectiles discharged with immense velocity or large torpedoes which can be fired from submarines and destroyers—far larger than those which could be dropped from any seaborne aircraft. One thing to be remembered is the fact that the velocity with which a bomb from the air hits a ship is dependent entirely on gravity, whereas the velocity of the shell is immense and there is no comparison between the effects of the two on armour. If we are wrong about this question of battleships, then, I ask, why should Germany and France be building great and powerful capital ships. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Sir A. Sinclair) did not deal with those countries. He merely referred to Japan and America, but I suggest that, whatever is being done at the moment in the matter of battleships by Japan and America, we ought to take account of the fact that battleships and battle cruisers are being built, so to speak, on our thresholds. I am immensely relieved to know that the Admiralty approves of laying down two next year, and my only complaint is that as most of our ships of this class are 22 years old and, as we are only allowed 15, the replacement of two seems a very small contribution. The modern ships which are being built by other nations are bound to be far more efficient and far better able to withstand modern methods of attack than the old renovated ships which we shall have.
      A Noble Lord in another place recently expressed a hope that the new coordinating Minister would invite the critics of the Admiralty to come forward and state their case. Incidentally I am sorry that the new Minister is not in his place. I would like to tell him how greatly I admire his courage in under-
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      taking this stupendous task which the Prime Minister has confided to him and to express very sincere hopes for his great success in it. But I can well imagine what would have been said by the War Office or the Air Ministry if an admiral had suggested that the critics of those Departments should be invited to come forward and state their case. However, I welcome the suggestion and I believe that the Admiralty welcomes it. I hope that those critics will be invited to justify, if thy can, their views and theories in the presence of the officers of the Admiralty, who, I would repeat, not only have a wealth of practical experience but have an abundance of practical experiments to guide the. I hope that the invitation to which I have referred will include my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Hertford (Sir M. Sueter) and that they will show him, confidentially, all the details of the more recent experiments, so that he will no longer have to depend on the 15-year old American experiments which he has somewhat inaccurately described in this House and in the Press.
      Sir M. SUETER: Will my hon. and gallant Friend indicate in what respect I have inaccurately described them, in this House or in the Press?
      Sir R. KEYES: Perhaps my hon. and gallant Friend would allow me to go into that matter with him elsewhere. It really is not a subject on which we ought to enter into controversy in the House. I want to enlist his help and services in putting our defence in order. I am sure he could help. We are all grateful to him for the use which he made of his good fortune in the ballot which contributed to the success of the Defence Debate, and will be of value to the Debates that are taking place on the Service Estimates. It is 20 years since he was associated with the Royal Naval Air Force, in the building up of which he took a great part under the incentive of my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping, but I can assure him and the House that the Navy is longing for the opportunity to spread its wings. It is maddening to the Navy to have to watch America and Japan, for instance, soaring away ahead in naval aviation. I had meant to raise several questions with regard to this subject, but I feel that the matter is now sub judice. I hope that the new Minister will lose no time

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      in getting together the people who are chiefly concerned and carrying out a thorough investigation. I am so certain of the justice of the Navy's case that I feel sure their requirements will be met. Therefore, I will not do anything more at present than call the attention of my right hon. and learned Friend and the House to a letter written by Lord Beatty only a month ago on the subject of the Navy and the Air Force. After regretting that this controversy should still be raging, and remarking that it was inevitable as long as the present situation existed, he wrote:
      "The important thing to remember is that the decisions given many years ago were considered by the Government of the day to be the best compromise that could be made, pending experience. It is in my recollection that Lord Salisbury, who arbitrated on the question of the relations of the Navy and the Air Force, made it clear that, in his view, ultimately the Fleet Air Arm may become a special branch of the Fleet in all respects like any other. The situation to-day is that we have more than 10 years' experience, and the present system has failed. I am sure that, neither through the Press, nor Parliament, nor by political committees, will this question ever he satisfactorily settled. A proper judicial inquiry seems to be the only solution, in order that facts and not personalities shall be the deciding factor in making such a vital decision."
      My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Fareham (Sir T. Inskip) is fully qualified to carry out such a judicial inquiry. I would support the suggestion of my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping that a thorough inquiry should also be made into the question of battleship building. As we were reminded an exhaustive inquiry was held in 1922. I was examined for hours at that inquiry the result of which was that the Admiralty's wish to build battleships was considered justified. I am confident that the present board would make out an equally good case. References have been made to the great services of Lord Beatty. He, and the other great sailor to whom the country owed so much the last time its sea communications were in jeopardy, now lie in the crypt of St. Paul's in the heart of the Empire. Is it too much to ask all parties and all people in this great Empire to unite in demanding that those serving tailors who now carry the torch should be supplied with the weapons and the means by which they can carry out their great charge—the Navy's heritage?
      7.27 p.m.
      Lord STANLEY: I wish to say at the outset how much I appreciate the reception given this afternoon to these Estimates. Even the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Sir A. Sinclair) softened the blow of his criticism. When he informed me that on three occasions he had called attention, with indignation, to the fact that the First Lord of the Admiralty was no longer in this House, I thought that as he himself had so recently been elevated to the command of his own platoon, he might have had a little more fellow feeling for a second in command like myself. I feel, however, that we have every reason to be satisfied with the Debate which these Estimates have produced. There has been no attempt in it to score party or petty points. All the speeches have been either instructive or constructive and all have been extremely useful and I shall try, in the few remarks with which I propose to wind up the main Debate, to keep the same spirit.
      If I have any complaint to make it is against the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) who talked a good deal about our actions having been governed by panic. I cannot see any trace of panic in what has been said or done to deal with the situation. He cannot point to any speech which gives any indication of panic. To have said that the deficiencies in the Navy were only small and could be made up by small general increases in the ordinary Estimates would have been deceiving the country. We had to tell the people of the country that those deficiencies were appreciable and that certain measures were required in order to deal with them. We had to tell them that the time had come when we must set about building battleships.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: If it is no more than that why not tell us what is the cost? Why leave the House in darkness on that matter?
      Lord STANLEY: That is over the whole defence Estimates. I have no objection to telling the right hon. Gentleman what is the estimated cost of making good the Navy deficiencies, but that is not the question which he put to me. I do not think he can say that there is any sign of panic in the programme which

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      we have put forward or in the introductory statement by my Noble Friend the First Lord. There was a point raised by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Caithness with which I should like to deal now. I regret that he is not in his place, but he will be able to read my remarks. He complained that the cost of what we are getting now was enormous compared with pre-war days. He put his complaint in an extremely fair and friendly way. He called attention to one or two directions in which obviously there could be no comparison between present and pre-war prices. He talked of the non-effective Vote and about pay and about wages and their effect on contracts, but he left out two very important items—the advent of the Fleet air arm arid the large sums of money which are being spent on anti-aircraft defence.
      Before coming here to-day I got some figures which I thought might be of some general interest to the House. They cannot be taken as accurate. They are only approximate. Taking the effective Services only, the provision proposed this year is £60,250,000. If pre-war rates and prices still obtained it is estimated that the cost would have been £39,832,500 while the original Estimates for 1914–15 were about £48,000,000. Taking the total Navy Estimates, ours are nearly £70,000,000. On the basis of pre-war prices they would have been £45,000,000 and the original Estimates for 1914–15 were £51,000,000. I do assure the right hon. Gentleman that we do everything we can to ensure due economy. In the days immediately after the financial crisis in 1931 we had to scrape together every penny we could and we got money from every nook and cranny. Now that, with an expanding programme, money is not quite such an impeding factor as it was then, we are still doing everything we can to see that the money is carefully and economically spent.
      The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough asked several questions about the conference. I am afraid that at the risk of discourtesy I can only repeat what has been said before in answer to questions, and on the Supplementary Estimates on the Naval Conference, that it really is inadvisable to say anything more at the present time. We have given all the information we can. We have already told him why we
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      thought it inadvisable to publish a White Paper before the conference started, and there has been this self-imposed pledge of silence on all Members which is, I think the only reason why the conference is still sitting. The right hon. Gentleman should have a little fellow-feeling because I notice that in a previous Debate—I presume it must have been on the Naval Treaty—he himself deprecated a discussion in public session on the ground that it would not be of assistance in bringing the conference to a successful issue.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: We did publish a White Paper.
      Lord STANLEY: If we had published a White Paper it would probably have led to the conference ending already without coming to a decision at all. The only thing arising out of the conference about which I would say a few words is the Anglo-German Treaty. I do not want to go into that in any great detail. It has been debated in the House before, and everybody has made up his mind whether the Treaty is right or wrong, but really there is a misapprehension that it limits us. It does not limit us in any way. We are entirely free to build whatever programme we like. All it does is to limit the Germans to a percentage of that programme, and I cannot see that we are any worse off by signing that Treaty than if it had never been made.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: Does not the Noble Lord see that from the very fact of a breach of the Versailles Treaty being whitewashed by the Government there can be no complaint about German hasty action? You are whitewashing a breach of the Versailles Treaty when you might have taken different action.
      Lord STANLEY: When we saw that in no other part of the defence Forces was there going to be any limitation, and that they had in fact broken the Versailles Treaty both in regard to the Army and the Air Force, we thought we might make some attempt to get some sort of limitation as regards the Navy. The right hon. Gentleman also asks who we were going to build against. I think I should get into a good deal of trouble with the Foreign Secretary if I gave him in order of priority these people whom we were most likely to fight. It would hardly be helpful either to the conference or to the very difficult time through which we

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      are passing. We are not building against anybody; we are not building against any individual country. We are building in conformity to our own requirements and to our own responsibilities. I am very happy to be able to tell my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) that there is no spirit of competition whatsoever between America and ourselves with regard to our programme.
      Now I will turn to the points mainly raised by my right hon. Friend the Member for Epping. With his general observations on strategy and naval building, which interested the House so much, I am quite sure he would not expect me to deal at such very short notice, but I should like to take up two points. One is as regards destroyers. It is perfectly true that I am not able to show the whole picture at the present time, but we can always if necessary return to that question. I think he minimised the importance of one thing. I said in my speech that at the end of the War we had definitely got the better of the submarine menace, and that we were still maintaining that supremacy owing to the advance of science. The Admiralty is quite convinced that the measures it has taken or is going to take are sufficient to meet the situation as it is at present. If anything further develops we are in a position to expand on that side of the fleet far more easily than in any other category. He talked about battleships and the question of experiments with battleships was mentioned by several speakers. It is really impossible to give details of those experiments. They were very secret and carried out with great thoroughness, and obviously we are prepared to go on with those experiments and get all the increased knowledge we can. With regard to the general question of battleships, I can only hope that I put my case strongly. I really want people to feel confident about battleships, to feel that they are necessary. I do not want people to go about feeling that their money has been wasted on battleships when it ought to be used for something else. We are perfectly prepared to take any steps to make people perfectly convinced that the policy of the Government is right.
      The Admiralty has nothing to fear whatsoever. We have put our case time and time again. We have got our case ready and we would really like the opportunity
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      of the critics of battleships coming out into the open. But they must not make airy speeches about what aircraft can or cannot do. Their views must be based on definite experience, and I hope that they will be open to cross questioning, by the naval authorities in the same way as the naval authorities have been cross-questioned by the opponents of battleships. Therefore, while I feel perfectly clear that my right hon. Friend will not expect me to pledge myself to the exact method of inquiry to be adopted, I can assure him that every step will be taken to ensure that all these points can be thrashed out as to the merit or otherwise of our battleship replacement programme. I think I have dealt with the main points raised in the general debate. Several other points were raised by the right hon. Gentleman but I hope he will allow me to reserve my reply until we get to the Committee stage.
      7.42 p.m.
      Mr. De CHAIR: I beg to move, to leave out from the word "That," to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:
      "this House, mindful of the fact that it is the Navy which has raised Great Britain to the foremost place in the world, has maintained it there for centuries, and made possible the growth of the British Empire, believes that, as this country is an island with an overseas empire dependent on sea communications for the safe transportation of troops, munitions, foodstuffs, and raw materials, the Royal Navy must remain the most important element in our defences, and further, that the Fleet should be maintained at an adequate strength, having due regard to the changed conditions of naval warfare resulting from the development of air power."
      I rise to speak on this occasion chiefly because I am a member of a naval family. When I complained to the hon. and gallant Member the Member for North Portsmouth (Sir R. Keyes) that he had cut away all the ground from under my feet, he said, "Well, you are to a certain extent an hereditary expert in these matters." Though I cannot claim to compete with the expert knowledge of some hon. Members who have taken part in the Debate, nevertheless I hope to be able to put forward some constructive views in support of the Amendment which I have moved. I am certainly mindful of the fact that I am one of the least of the Members of this assembly and I remember the advice of the Baloo,

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      the big bear, to Mowgli, "The jungle is large and you are small." However I will take my courage and talk. But for an accident which took me to Australia at an early age I might have gone into the naval service, and I might have been standing now on the deck of a destroyer in the Mediterranean scanning the vacant spaces of the horizon. Despite the fact that I am now scanning the vacant spaces of a more limited horizon, I have nevertheless been placed in a particularly favourable position for the acquisition of reliable information on naval matters.
      My aim in putting this Amendment before the House is to underline, as it were, the demand which the First Lord has laid before Parliament and which the Parliamentary Secretary has explained in this House so ably this afternoon. The First Lord, although he has now cast anchor in another place, has nevertheless had experience of the Service himself. He is not therefore like that First Lord of the Admiralty who, on inspecting his first ship, is reputed to have exclaimed "Great Scott, the thing's hollow." The First Lord realises better than anyone that the Navy remains the first line of our defences, for the reasons stated in the White Paper recently published. That White Paper says that
      "the overwhelming importance of the Navy in preserving our sea communications and thus ensuring to this country the supplies of sea-borne food and raw materials on which its existence depends, was fully set out in the White Paper of March last."
      We have there stated, in almost identical terms with those of the Amendment that if peace should be broken the Navy is, as always, the first line of defence for the maintenance of our essential sea communications. Thus it is that the security of sea passage to this country as well as to a great part of the Empire forms the basis of our home and Imperial defences without which all other measures can be of little avail." When the Civil Lord replies I hope he will state unequivocally, for the benefit of the public, that the opinion that the Navy does remain the first line of our defences is still the opinion of His Majesty's Government.
      The Debate to-day has largely ranged on the controversy between the Air Force and the battleship upon the question whether or not the battleship is able to stand up to aerial bombardment. The
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      right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) said that it was far too large a topic to be thrashed out in detail on the Floor of the House, but that did not deter my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Hertford (Sir M. Sueter) from giving the other day some cogent arguments in favour of the other side of the picture. I think that when we have people like my hon. and gallant Friend and a whole section of the Press giving the public the impression that the Air Force is supreme over the battleship, some pretty conclusive arguments ought to be forthcoming on the other side. The effect of this bias is not only to cause disquiet in the minds of the taxpayers, but it has a disastrous effect on the morale of the Navy itself. If the naval ratings and even the junior officers are continually reading in their morning papers that the people in whom they have been taught to place confidence are duffers who do not know their job, it is bound to have a very disturbing effect upon the morale of the Fleet. Therefore, I hope that the Admiralty and the Government will give more conclusive arguments in support of their contention that the battleship is able to stand up to the air bomb.
      The Noble Lord who laid the Estimates before the House stated that he was satisfied that the battleship was able to stand up to air bombardment, but he did not give any very detailed reasons for supposing so. The hon. and gallant Member for Hertford stated that the "Ostfriesland" sank in two and three-quarter minutes after being hit by four 2,000-lb. bombs. In his anxiety to stress that side of the case he somewhat drew the long bow, for what he did not tell the H ruse was that these four bombs came at the end of two days' incessant bombardment, that the "Ostfriesland" was built in 1909, and that she was moored to a single spot and was unable to defend herself. It was nothing more than a carcase for the vultures to peck at, and yet it stood up to two days' bombardment—
      Sir M. SUETER: The first bombardment was only by, small bombs. When they put heavy bombs on her they knocked her out at once.
      Mr. De CHAIR: I am glad that the hon. and gallant Gentleman has taken me up on that paint, because I feel justified now in giving some of the facts of that experiment. The bombardment

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      of the "Ostfriesland" took place on 20th and 21st July, 1921. On the first day fifty 600-lb. bombs were dropped on the ship, but only 13 struck and they did very little damage. On the second day five bombing planes dropped some 1,000-lb. bombs on the ship, three of them hitting, but they also failed to sink it. It was not until six heavy bombing aeroplanes dropped four 2,000-lb. bombs that the ship sank. That ship had therefore stood up to a bombardment of fifty 600-lb. bombs, three hits from 1,000-lb. bombs and only finally succumbed to four 2,000-lb. bombs. This ship was moored to one spot, unable to defend itself; she was obsolete and had insufficient deck protection. What is the position in relation to these 2,000-lb. bombs? An aeroplane can carry only one of them. It cannot travel very far with it and it cannot leave its shore base very far in order to drop a bomb. It is the opinion of the highest command in the British Fleet air arm, as stated by the First Lord in another place, that the 2,000-lb. bomb can be discounted for practical purposes in naval warfare except within a very limited radius of the land.
      Therefore, I do not think that the arguments advanced in favour of the "Ostfriesland" carry much weight. That was an American experiment, and we see the American delegation at the Conference in London now asking for the 35,000-ton battleship. That indicates that they are not satisfied that the battleship is doomed by the bomb. I know what my hon. and gallant Friend says to that, but it is an argument with which I do not agree. There was also the experiment carried out on the "Washington" in America. After four days of severe tests from bombs exploded in the water alongside the hull, and torpedoes exploded against the side of the ship, she remained afloat for four days and finally had to be sunk by gunfire. I could multiply these cases indefinitely to prove that the battleship is able to stand up to aerial bombardment, even when moored and unable to defend itself. It is perhaps appropriate to mention an English experiment, particularly because the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) asked the Government whether they would carry out these experiments on moving battleships. I will refer to the experiment carried out
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      on the "Agamemnon" in July, 1924. She was wireless controlled and 114 bombs were dropped from aeroplanes ranging between 5,000 and 12,000 feet. Not one of the bombs hit the boat. Why? Because the officer who was controlling the wireless course of the "Agamemnon" kept on jigging the ship to the right all the afternoon, and the airmen in their wisdom kept on expecting the ship to turn to port. The result was that they continually dropped their bombs on the port beam and never landed one on the ship at all.
      I cite these cases because it is important to give in some detail the other side of the picture. There is one rather amusing case which has sometimes been quoted, that of the mutinous Dutch battleship "De Zeven Provincien." It was claimed that when this ship was brought to submission by the detonation of a bomb on the fo'c'sle, it was a triumph for the air arm. It was, however, subsequently revealed officially that the aeroplane had orders to drop a bomb two cables ahead of the ship, but such was the accuracy of the bombing that it fell a quarter of a mile wide of the mark and struck the ship by mistake. I have detained the House some time to speak on this side of my Amendment because so long as doubts exist as to the ability of ships to stand up to aerial bombardments, the case for the Amendment will lack conviction.
      The need for reiteration cannot be doubted when we have people like my hon. and gallant Friend giving the other side of the picture with such eloquence and vehemence, and when we have a whole section of the Press stressing the other side of the case. The wisdom of God cannot have descended on Lord Rothermere alone among the naval experts of the world. It is a fact that the experts in the business are absolutely satisfied as to the ability of the battleship to stand up to bombardment. The First Lord of the Admiralty said in another place that
      "the battleships of the British Navy which have been fitted by extra deck armour during the last few years are virtually impervious to air bombing attack. This is the opinion of the highest officers in the British Fleet air arm."
      That kind of periodical denial is merely like a dose of salts after a night of alcohol. The corrective is swallowed with dislike, if not with

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      scepticism, but the recollection of the pleasing dizziness alone remains.
      Here I would give the Admiralty a home truth. The Admiralty is largely to blame for this misconception which has arisen in the public mind. It has a weak Press bureau. There are only two naval officers in it, and they are by tradition non-communicative—they think it would be inadvisable to say this, or injudicious to mention that. On the other side of the picture, the Air Ministry has a Press Department with nine men in it ready and anxious to give the reporters something that will leave no doubt—in the minds of the reporters' wives, at any rate—that the country is in great peril and that the Air Force is supreme. This is a somewhat barren controversy, and therefore I agree with the right hon. Member for Epping that it is time the subject was fully investigated so that the anxiety which exists in the public mind can be set at rest.
      I will conclude this controversy by turning the tables altogether. I say emphatically that the Air Force is the most immobile force we have. When trouble broke out in Abyssinia it was only the Fleet which prevented Italy taking counter measures against the League of Nations. We cannot send aircraft out to Egypt or to India or any point of the globe at 250 miles an hour. When trouble broke out in Abyssinia, the aeroplanes had to be packed up in crates, put into tramp steamers, and escorted at 10 knots by the Fleet; and they took six weeks to get to Egypt. That would have been a, grievous danger in time of war, not only to the Fleet but to the aircraft packed up in cold storage. The aerial bombs also have to be packed up in crates. Therefore, I think it is true to say that the Air Force is an immobile force in that respect. It used to be said that, the sailor carried the soldier on his back. To this burden must now be added the airman.
      I have listened to the Debate which preceded this Amendment with the misgivings which many speakers must have felt when listening to such Debates, when one expert after another has undermined the ground which they were going to use in order to make a speech. I should have liked to run through our present Fleet to indicate that we have not got an adequate Fleet because so
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      many of our ships are over-age. Although that point has been made by speakers in this Debate, what the Debate has not brought out is that except for what we build now we shall very soon have no Fleet at all, because so many of our ships are over-age. Our fine old ships have been likened to a fleet of Rolls-Royces, put on the road 20 years ago, still in working order but laughably antiquated. They cannot remain in working order for ever. The case of our battlefleet has been mentioned. We have two modern battleships, the "Nelson" and the "Rodney," and the White Paper promises two more. Very good; that is four modern battleships, and if you include the battlecruiser Hood there are five modern battleships. That is your battle fleet of the future, unless provision is made for an enlarged battle fleet, because all the other battleships are already over-age by treaty standards, or become over-age this year. The same might be said of all the classes of ships in our Fleet.
      The right hon. Member for Epping asked the Government t point blank why, in the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, they allowed Germany to build up to our strength in submarines. I think I can give him the answer, or at any rate give him a reason which, I think, influenced the Government very strongly. I hope I am not here betraying any very great naval secret, but it is a fact that we have to-day an almost fool-proof and efficient anti-submarine device. I hope it does not reveal any secret to say that it operates on the system of the reflector ray, an enormous improvement on the old hydro-phone system, which was faulty in operation, the submarine usually coming up on the opposite side to that on which it had been reported. Naturally if we have an effective and fool-proof anti-submarine device, which means practically that no submarines can come within torpedo firing range of a ship without danger of instant destruction, there is at least some argument that the provisions we have made for defence against submarines are more adequate than they might appear outwardly. I myself take the view that the Anglo-German Naval Agreement is 'f enormous value to this country by limiting in perpetuity tilt German Navy to one-third of ours. It seems to me we have eliminated one of the greatest possible sources of naval rivalry that ever menaced this country.

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      There are other classes of ships in all of which we find ships which are over age. In our destroyer class 109 of the present destroyers, out of 169, are over age, and 32 of the present 54 cruisers are over age. Therefore, to my mind, the White Paper ought to include provision not only for the additional 20 cruisers, to bring the number up to 70, which is the minimum which the Admiralty consider necessary, but also to provide for the replacement of ships. Cruisers are a class of ships which we need more than does any other country, on account of our extended trade routes, and the lessons of the last War ought not to be lost upon us—that it is not only in having sufficient cruisers that our security depends, but in having cruisers of a sufficiently up-to-date type.
      The House will remember the lamentable loss of Admiral Cradock's squadron at Coronel, due to the superiority of Von Spee's ships over ours, and, on the other side, will remember how we turned the tables on Von Spee at the Falkland Islands through having cruisers of a more up-to-date type on the spot. Von Spec was on his way to South Africa to aid de Wet's rebellion and break South Africa away from the Empire at a critical stage in the War. The Admiralty sent Admiral Sturdee out to the Falkland Islands with the "Invincible" and the "Inflexible," two first-class cruisers, and as he made no wireless signals on the way out they arrived all unknown to Von Spee, who advanced unknowingly to his doom. When it was reported to Von Spee that ships with tripod masts were coming out of the harbour at the Falkland Islands he said, "There are no ships with tripod masts in the Southern Hemisphere," but as soon as he saw the "Invincible" and the "Inflexible" emerge he realised that he was confronted with cruisers of superior armament to his own and turned and fled. That, however, did not prevent him being overtaken and the "Scharnhorst" and the "Gneisenau" were sunk practically without the British ships coming within range of the German gunfire. That ought to convince the House of the importance of having not only enough cruisers but cruisers of a sufficiently up-to-date nature and design.
      I know that some hon. Members may be thinking that it is not much use
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      having ships at sea if the harbours behind them can be destroyed and pulverised by air attack, and I should like to have had a little more assurance from the Parliamentary Secretary that our harbours are immune from air attack and the reason why. Only recently he was asked on the Floor of this House if he were satisfied that our ships in Haifa, Jaffa and Alexandria were invulnerable from air attacks, and his answer was in the affirmative, but perhaps more reasons might well be given without betraying to the world any particular secrets of naval design and construction. Here, again, I do not want to give away secrets, but I think it is known to most Governments that the Admiralty have constructed an entirely new type of ship for the defence of harbours. They have constructed an anti-aircraft ship by converting one of our old cruisers for this type of work. I think it would probably be injudicious to state which ship has been converted, or to say what guns have replaced its former guns, but the fact remains that the Admiralty now have an anti-aircraft ship which is capable of bringing a. terrific volume of fire into play in defence of a harbour, and in future there will probably be one of these anti-aircraft ships for every harbour and, no doubt, one will accompany every squadron.
      I mention these things to try to correct the impression which has grown up in the public mind that we are defenceless from air attack. We are not defenceless from air attack at sea, and our harbours are not defenceless either. Therefore, the argument that our Navy remains the first line of defence still holds good. We should remember a little more clearly than we do what an overwhelming factor our supremacy at sea was in the last War. I shall not detain the House a moment longer, but I should like to quote a speech of the late Lord Balfour made at the height of the War. He said:
      "The Fleet is the life of the nation. You owe to it that in this unexampled moment in the history of the world we can freely import what we require from abroad and freely export what we produce at home. Our economic stability, not less than our military operations, depend upon the British Fleet. Silent though it may be, not engaged in actions of remarkable heroism, it is at this moment performing not for the British Empire alone, nor yet for the Allies of Britain alone, but for the

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      whole world, a most important part in the drama now being played for the freedom of the world. Every man, woman and child in this country when he enjoys his daily meal, when he carries out his ordinary avocations, when he feels that his shores are protected from the attacks of unscrupulous enemies, let him remember that he awes those incomparable blessings to the British Navy."
      Let us not suppose that the usefulness of the Fleet is displayed in war-time alone. The Fleet is the greatest preserver of peace. During recent months it has been preserving peace. The British Navy is the foremost seal on the Covenant of the League of Nations, and it is those grey shapes on the horizon which, more than anything else, deter breakers of the Covenant or would-be breakers of the Covenant from aggressive acts. I think the Fleet does more than rivers of ink and torrents of words to preserve the peace of the world. I will end with a word from a Poet Laureate of the last century which, I think, is very applicable to-day:
      "You, you, that have the ordering of her fleet,
      If you should only compass her disgrace, When all men starve, the wild mob's million feet
      Will kick you from your place, But then too late, too late."
      8.10 p.m.
      Mr. LEVY: I beg to second the Amendment.
      This afternoon we have listened with great interest to all the experts who have spoken, and I think the House will agree that they have confined most of their remarks to the need for an adequate Fleet. Practically nothing has been said of the need for an adequate Fleet air arm. But for the luck of the ballot it would not have been my privilege, being only a layman, to have dealt with this subject, and it would have been more fitting if it had been left for an expert; but though I approach this question as a non-expert, I have gone to a great deal of trouble to examine the arguments and the experiences of experts. To that extent I may claim to discuss this subject without any preconceived ideas, and, if I may say so, with an impartiality that is not always found among experts. The conclusion I have definitely come to is that a very great strengthening of the Fleet air arm is absolutely vital to the effective defence of this country. I am not concerned for
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      the moment with the question of dual control, with the claim of the Navy to maintain and control its own air service outside the Air Ministry, but what I am concerned with, and what I think the country is concerned with, is that the Navy should have an air arm adequate in the number of machines and in trained personnel to discharge the great responsibilities and duties which conditions to-day lay upon the Fleet air arm.
      The first-line strength of the Fleet air arm at present is only 190 machines. No one who approaches this matter with an open mind and with any understanding of naval requirements to-day can pretend that this force is anything like adequate. What are the chief functions of the Fleet air arm? The chief functions have been laid down with authority as, first, to find the enemy; secondly, to attack with bombs and torpedoes; thirdly, to obtain air superiority; and, fourthly, to provide air escorts for convoys. Obviously the present air fleet is ridiculously-small to carry out these duties in time of need. When the Royal Naval Air Service was in existence as a separate unit, before the Royal Air Force was formed and absorbed the Naval arm, the Naval Air Service was the biggest and the best in the world. In April, 1918, the Royal Naval Air Service possessed, I understand, in addition to a number of dirigibles, 2,800 aircraft and 55,000 officers and men. It was of enormous value in convoy and reconnaissance work, and for bombing and fighting. To-day, despite the great developments in the air during the last 15 or 16 years and the acknowledged importance of air strength, the Fleet air arm is only about one-fifteenth of its former strength. We know that there is a big programme of expansion in the Royal Air Force. The home front in the air is being greatly strengthened as a matter of imperative necessity. We are told that we must be as strong in the air as the nearest Power within striking distance of our shores. That is all very good and sound, so far as it goes, but what of the air front it sea and of the Fleet air service? The Fleet air service, of 190 first line machines—
      Mr. MONTAGUE: Two hundred and seventeen.
      Mr. LEVY: My information is 190, but if I accept the figure of the hon. Member, a Fleet air arm even of 217 first-line

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      machines would be comic if it were not so tragically perilous. Think of those 217 first-line machines in relation to their grave responsibility. One of the greatest dangers in any future war will be the submarine, of which we all have bitter memories from the last War. As a spotter of submarines aircraft have an extraordinarily high value. The trail of the submarine, the small track of its periscope, is easily visible to aircraft, which can swoop down in a few seconds and bomb the submarine before it has time to dive. Experience proved this during the closing stages of the last War. Submarines went below when they saw heavier-than-air craft escorting a convoy. Their commanders admit that air attack is the most terrifying risk they run. The maintenance of our food supplies will always be the main interest of this island in war time, and we dare not neglect anything that will combat the submarine and give our fleets at sea the eyes that they need.
      The First Lord of the Admiralty said last year that the air had given the Navy not only a potent weapon but an increased range of vision, and that hitherto limited horizons had been swept back for many miles. Everybody will admit that that is true, but while we depend mainly upon sea power to keep open our absolutely vital supply connections, the integral factor of that sea power and of its efficient exercise is the Fleet air arm. There is another aspect of this important matter and that is the equipment of more ships of the Fleet with aircraft and the provision of many more air bases throughout the Empire. The accommodation of aircraft on fighting ships is naturally limited and it is, therefore, extremely important that ships equipped with aircraft should have the greatest possible opportunity when at sea of replenishing and repairing their aircraft. It is a grave handicap if a ship has to choose between steaming a thousand or more miles to a distant air base and carrying on with diminished air equipment. There are many points throughout the Empire where air bases could be established with great gain to the efficiency and the utility of the Fleet air arm. I hope that the Government in their exhaustive review of our defence requirements, have given full consideration to this and have made provision for it. I have no doubt that they have.
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      I decided that I would not speak for more than 10 minutes, but I want to take this opportunity of assuring the Government, if they need any assurance on the point, that, so far as I have been able to gauge opinion, the people in this country expect—indeed they demand—adequate defences. I am convinced that in the proposals they are putting forward to that end the Government are proposing what the country strongly desire, that they are serving a high national interest and are vindicating in the most complete way their own national character.
      8.22 p.m.
      Lieut. - Commander FLETCHER: Although I belong to an Opposition party I am sure the hon. Member who moved the Amendment will not take it amiss if I say with what very great pleasure I listened to his speech. I imagine it must have been a source of great satisfaction to him to move this Amendment since he bears a name which will always be held in honour in the Navy as that of an officer who performed most distinguished service, not only in the Navy but in the diplomatic field, when he accompanied Mr. Balfour, as he then was, to Washington in America, in 1917, and also as a Dominion Governor. One disagrees perhaps in point of degree with the terms of the Amendment rather than with the intention of it. The hon. Member must have been thinking of a scroll which used to hang in the old Naval College of Osborne and which read, "There is nothing that the Navy cannot do." It was in that spirit that the late Lord Charles Beresford, on being consulted concerning the possibility of repopulating some depopulated Pacific Islands, said, "That is quite easy; send for the Marines." The Amendment would make a very good Navy League appeal if it concluded with another paragraph making a request for a subscription.
      There is one point upon which I particularly differ from the Mover. It is when he says that the Navy must remain the most important element in our defences. I am very proud of my own Service but I would not be prepared to go as far as that because, looking at the shape of things to come, it is quite possible that the air may yet become the predominating element in our defences. I think the hon. Member must speak to

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      his own Front Bench about the question of the adequacy of the existing Fleet. Heaven knows, enough money has been spent on the Navy, and there must have been very gross mishandling of that money if the Navy is not at the present time both adequate and efficient. I remember, of course, the statements made about the Navy for electioneering purposes. On that point I will only say that I thought it most remarkable of too Prime Minister to move our Fleet to Alexandria, with a view to making an impression upon the Italian Government, and, having done so, immediately to broadcast to the nation that our Navy was in such a deplorable condition that it would almost sink if anyone so much as looked at it. I think the main difficulty of the Mover of the Amendment will be to discover what is the foreign policy of the Government, because he will need to do that before he can advance any views as to what an adequate Navy is.
      The Amendment refers to the question of safe transport of food and raw materials, and I should like to ask how that transport of food and raw materials is going to be safeguarded in the future against air attack. I know that, when asked these questions, staff officers look very pontifical, and Ministers usually reply, "I am advised," or, in moments of extreme stress, they say it would not be in the public interest to reply: and plain and unpretentious people like myself are overawed and shut up accordingly. But these things were said in exactly the same terms before the War. If the Mover of the Amendment had been born earlier, and had been moving his Amendment in 1913, he would have moved it in practically, if not entirely, identical terms, and we should have had a very reassuring reply. But the War showed that the Admirals and the Ministers had never thought out what a menace the submarine was going to be, or what the reply to it would be.
      If in 1913 anyone had raised the question in the House of whether the Admiralty were taking the proper steps to safeguard our trade against the submarine, one can imagine the salvos of oratory with which the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) would have deluged his questioner, and the drum-fire of redundant
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      adjectives with which he would have assured him that it had all been thought out, that we had a perfect answer, and that everything would be done. Will the Parliamentary Secretary, in his rather quieter manner, give us the same reassuring reply about the air? Will he say that the answer has been thought out; and, if he is going to say that, will he say that the arrangements have been already made for the necessary equipment and so on? I hope very much that we may have a specific reply on that point. If I may, I should like to take this opportunity of thanking the Parliamentary Secretary for the very courteous replies he has given to the rather large number of questions I have addressed to him. I have not succeeded in getting all the information I hoped for, but I suppose a Minister would regard it as rather a reflection upon himself if any Member could say he had got all the information he hoped for. I am, however, grateful for his courtesy, and I think he has captured something from the Service over which he is presiding. In fact, I think that, with a trident in his hand and a little seaweed draped in the appropriate places, he would be the very embodiment of Father Neptune.
      If he will allow me to say so, I hope that in these matters he is really exercising his own personal independent judgment, and not accepting only the judgment of his professional advisers. We are discussing these Estimates today in the shadow of the loss of one of the greatest sailors of all time, and it is tragic to remember how this country was robbed of the rewards of his unsurpassed courage and of his genius for battle by the wretched ships with which the Admiralty sent him out to fight. I remember that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping, speaking of Lord Beatty's assuming command of the battle cruisers, said lie was given the command of "that incomparable squadron." In my opinion, if they were incomparable for anything, they were incomparable as death-traps. The question of design is all important. At present there seems to be a tendency to cram every ship with every conceivable gadget and device. It is like a young man with his first sports car putting every possible accessory on to the dash. In the same way, our ships are being crowded with devices and gadgets. The essential function of the ship seems to be

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      forgotten in an attempt to provide for every possible and impossible contingency. I believe that other countries are ahead of us in hull design. Some of our hull designs give very little guarantee of seagoing qualities, while we know that ships of foreign design are able to get their speeds in all weathers.
      I believe that the one thing we must bear in mind about naval warfare is that the only thing we know about it is that the next war will not be like the last. The air weapon is a completely new menace to our command of the sea, and we shall have to protect our commerce in future against air attack. It is not enough to take naval opinion to the effect that everything is all right. May I remind the Noble Lord that the professional advisers of some of his predecessors advised strongly against the introduction of steam, and against the introduction of the ironclad? Professional advisers are apt to be a little conservative, if not reactionary. In fact, I remember that the present First Lord, when he first took office, advised reverting to training under sail for the Navy. Our potential enemies recognise our weakness in the matter of the air. We have to import 90 per cent. of our food, and we have also to import our oil fuel. This is our weak point. The submarine in the next war will certainly force us back to convoys, and the convoy is the ideal target for bombers. Some of these convoys will have to run the gauntlet of the Mediterranean, which is a bomber's paradise. I do not think we can assume that in the next war all the Mediterranean Powers will be on our side, and, indeed, if certain events which are happening now go in a certain way, there may be a very strong air menace from the direction of Eritrea to our convoys approaching the Red Sea.
      This question of air attack is not only a question of aeroplane versus battleship; it is also a question of the aeroplane versus the convoy. The escort of that convoy may be armoured and she may have anti-aircraft guns, but the merchantmen will not be armoured and it is those convoys which are likely to fall such a prey to the bomber. I think the effect of thermite bombs upon oil tankers will be extremely interesting for anyone who does not happen to be on board one of the tankers. The aeroplane versus battleship controversy seems to me very
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      largely shrouded in mystery. We have heard of these American experiments about which there is so much talk, the Queen Bee experiments, which seem to have led to a great deal of hard swearing on both sides, and there is also the instance of the naval mutiny in Greece. I understand that the attacks in the latter instance were a little half-hearted. But, generally speaking, the question still seems shrouded in mystery. I am certain that the Navy takes it extremely seriously and naval gunnery lieutenants, with their great knowledge and efficiency, have done all that can be done but I do not think that lay opinion is by any means satisfied on the subject. We hear about armoured decks. A bomb that fails to penetrate the armoured deck may yet wreck all the controls—the gunnery controls and so on—and remember what damage a near hit may do. In that action off the Dogger Bank when Admiral Beatty was robbed of the fruits of his victory, it was due not to a direct hit upon the "Lion" but to a near hit, which put the ship out of action and allowed the German Fleet to escape.
      We cannot, I am afraid, press for any information as to what lessons have been learnt from Alexandria. I have heard that all we did there was to adopt the methods that we are already adopting for the defence of London—anti-aircraft guns and sound-ranging apparatus—but we cannot press for more information interesting though it may be. When discussing the possibilities of anti-aircraft protection, let us remember that the modern bomber, flying at 12,000 feet, can fly two miles in the time it will take a shell to reach her, and remember also the great advantage conferred upon the bomber by the fact of her being able to dodge in and out of clouds and to fly out of the eye of the sun. Generally speaking, the whole element of surprise is on the side of the bomber. I know that we cannot press the Parliamentary Secretary for specific replies on these points but there is one question which I think may fairly be put to him. Can he tell us if the Air Ministry are completely satisfied that the Navy has provided them with full and adequate opportunities for carrying out the exact experiments under the exact conditions which the Air Ministry have laid down in order to arrive at exact data on this aeroplane versus ship question? I am

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      not asking if experiments have been carried out, because we know they have been. I am asking if the Air Ministry have had all the facilities that they have asked the Admiralty for in this respect.
      As a last word on this question of the aeroplane versus the ship, remember that, while Admiral Sir Percy Scott questioned the efficacy of the battleship on the score of submarines, we know that that menace has practically passed away so far as the capital ship is concerned. The capital ship is on top where the submarine is concerned. But the late Admiral Fisher said after the War that the air would dominate the sea in the future and was extremely sceptical of the future value of the capital ship on that account. Admiral von Scheer, who was also known all through his life as a great advocate of the capital ship, was extremely impressed by these American experiments of which we have heard this evening and said that, while it was true that they were carried out against ships at anchor, ships could not always be on the move. Capital ships require large bases, and those bases are exposed to air attacks. I hope we may have some reassurance that this question of the value of the capital ship and of her ability to meet air attack is being gone into and will be considered by impartial minds. With all respect to them I am not prepared to take a verdict on that subject from admirals and captains whose dearest ambition, very rightly, ever since they have been cadets has been to stand on the bridge of one of these big ships in command.
      I am just as susceptible as anyone else to the beauty of those ships at sea but there is no mystic virtue in the battleship qua battleship and there is no magic in size. A battleship is only a means of floating guns into position, and you have to think out what the function of those guns is going to be when they are there and whether the air weapon will allow them to perform that function. This question of size also opens up the question of manoeuvreability. I am not sure, even if we decide that we must have the capital ship, whether we have not gone too far in point of size. There was a remarkable episode the other day when that very intrepid and dashing officer, Lord Cork and Orrery, was going to sea
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      from Portsmouth and he had the mortification of putting the "Nelson" ashore. He had the sad experience of not being able to go to sea in his own flagship but of having to go by train to Plymouth like any ordinary mortal and not an admiral and commander-in-chief, and to find another ship to take him to sea. That is a question also in this controversy, whether we have not reached the limit of size in regard to manoeuvreability.
      I should like to refer to another aspect of this question that is raised by the Amendment. That is the question of the naval defence for the Empire. Australia, for instance, has a bone of contention with Japan in regard to the question of a white Australia. If this country is engaged in a war in Europe, what would be the position of Australia in view of the fact that Japan would certainly then be in command of the Far Eastern seas? With our Fleet engaged on this side of Suez, what is going to happen to Singapore and Ceylon and the Straits Settlements, and what would become of our Indian Ocean trade and the Australian coastal trade? How would Australia face a blockade? I know that the theory of Empire is that, when the Mother country is attacked, the daughter Dominions promptly rush to her aid, but it may not be so possible for us to go to the aid of a daughter Dominion if she and ourselves happen to be attacked at the same time. It seems to me that a situation has arisen in the Far East which makes it impossible to guarantee the safety of our Empire on a basis of national armaments. I believe that now only collective security can give us Empire security. If the non-sated Powers attack us in Europe and in the Far East, we cannot survive without pooled security. We cannot expect to have that pooled security unless we show ourselves willing to make those economic concessions and adjustments at which the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Chelsea (Sir S. Hoare) hinted in a speech at Geneva.
      I have noticed in attending many lectures and meetings that no subject arouses such belligerency as the question of peace, and no subject arouses such intemperance of language as the subject of temperance. In fact, I quite expect my hon. Friend the Member for Bermondsey West (Dr. Salter) to take part in this

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      Debate and to speak to us on the incidence of the rum ration upon collisions at sea. But undoubtedly we all take great interest and pleasure in discussing these questions of war and the weapons of war, although I believe we discuss them without any prejudice to our opinions on the subject of war and peace. I would respectfully remind the House of a most remarkable prophecy made by the philosopher Kant, who said that man was delving into the mysteries of nature in order to find out how to make profits for himself, but in delving into those mysteries man would come upon secrets which would make this world a graveyard unless those secrets were used for what is right and just. They are words we might lay to heart when discussing such subjects as we are debating this evening.
      8.47 p.m.
      Captain A. GRAHAM: In rising to address the House for the first time, I would ask for a double measure of its usual indulgence not merely as a new Member, but also as one who, having listened continuously to Debates in another place, where rather more latitude is allowed, may perhaps have contracted therefrom a certain tendency to discursiveness. But I do not see how anyone who cares about the condition of what should be "our sure shield," the Navy, could at the present juncture keep silence. The whole effectiveness of our existing small Fleet, and also of any ships that are under construction, must depend upon one thing without which they will be practically useless, and that is the proper provision of sound naval bases. It is, I believe, an axiom of naval strategy that the mobility of a fleet depends upon its having a sufficient number of properly-equipped, unassailable and well-distributed bases. A small fleet properly equipped with these bases can often be far more effective than a large armada poorly equipped with bases. Formerly, the British Empire was very well equipped with bases both in our Home ports, the Mediterranean and the Far East.
      To-day, without going into the merits of the question, the fact is that our foreign policy has not prevented our turning former Allies—one in the Far East and the other in the Mediterranean—into a mood of definite hostility to ourselves, and who at this moment could guarantee
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      the duration of the recent Anglo-German Naval Pact as a factor in the peace of Europe? This very unpleasant fact seems to make it the inescapable duty of the plans division of the Admiralty to envisage the possibility of our being engaged on these three fronts simultaneously. It is a very unpleasant and grim possibility, but one which as far as I can see is inescapable. This also throws into still sharper relief the need for an even greater mobility of our Fleet, which can only be provided by improved naval bases. Yet it is a lamentable fact, though a true one, that there was a period within the last eight years to my knowledge when there was not one of the so-called defended ports of this Empire in a proper condition of defence even in peace time. Formerly the whole Mediterranean was looked upon as a safe, central and pivotal base from which the British Navy could, as need arose, issue either westwards to the Atlantic and North Sea or Eastwards to the Indian Ocean and Pacific. The Mediterranean is the absolute linchpin of our whole oceanic position, and whether we are engaged either in the Far East or in the North Sea our communications in the Mediterranean must be made absolutely secure. But what do we find to-day? The recent Italo-Abyssinian crisis was not of great gravity to us because of the Italian navy, but it was of gravity to us because it revealed the patent insecurity of our 80,000 miles of sea communication, the main line of which passes through the Mediterranean. What has been the result of that. The British Navy had to leave its former citadel of Malta and seek the hospitality of a foreign though friendly Power, Egypt, at Alexandria. For that hospitality we shall have to pay either in the present negotiations or in some other way.
      Yet, all the time, there lies available an Imperial asset in those waters, one indeed which came into our hands primarily for the purposes of naval strategy in 1878. I refer to the island of Cyprus. In 1877 Russia was practically at the gates of Constantinople, and it was to guard against the Russian menace to our position in the Levant and on the Suez Canal that Disraeli, to secure our position and also that of Turkey, took over the administration of Cyprus. To-day, while the Russian menace takes other forms there is another and more definite

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      strategic factor in the Levant which we cannot ignore—the Italian possession of the Dodecanese and Castellorizzo. In Volume IX of the British Documents on the Origins of the War a quotation is made from a Memorandum written by Admiral Troubridge as long ago as 1912, as follows:
      "The geographical situation of these islands (i.e. Dodecanese) enables the Sovereign Power, if enjoying the possession of a Navy, to exercise a control over the Levant and Black Sea trade and to threaten our position in Egypt in an unprecedented degree. … It may be confidently asserted that the possession by Italy of naval bases in the Aegean Sea would imperil our position in Egypt, would cause us to lose our control over our Black Sea and Levant route to the East via the Suez Canal to the operations of Italy and her allies."
      That was written in 1912, long before the present possibilities of either air power or submarines were realised. It was not true then as it is to-day that the Island of Malta lies as a convenient half-way dumping ground for the heavy bombers of Italy in their criss-cross flights between their bases in Sicily and Libya. Malta is practically useless for a fleet operating either in the central or the eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus, on the other hand, 270 miles distant from the Dodecanese Islands and 500 miles from Libya could provide at Famagusta, at a cost of less than £1,000,000, a very suitable base for naval and aerial purposes. While the friendship of Egypt is essential to our strategical position in the Near East, one wonders whether it is sound policy to rely on friendships never being broken or sabotage never taking place by a foreign Power. With the transfer to a much safer base at Famagusta than at Malta and Alexandria both those risks could be eliminated. Both labourers and local defence forces on the analogy of the Royal Malta Artillery are easily available for the base of Famagusta out of the island population of 340,000. The Cypriots would welcome such an opportunity for their employment and ambitions, which at present are without any healthy outlet.
      The recent development of Haifa., with a tonnage of shipping very little less than that of Marseilles, with all sorts of commercial establishments, stores and oil pipeline heads existing there, would not only suggest itself as an alternative naval base to Malta, but render it all the more
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      necessary to take advantage of the geographical position of Cyprus as a fender to ward off attacks coining from the Dodecanese on the northwest or from a hostile Turkey in the north, against Haifa. While its continental position and its proximity to the Syrian border. 20 miles away, does not render Haifa. as secure as the insular position of Famagusta, I would urge upon the Admiralty that the development of Haifa and Famagusta as twin or complementary bases would consolidate as far ahead as one can reasonably foresee our whole naval position in the Eastern Mediterranean and the control of the Suez Canal.
      In view of the proposed co-ordination in the Services I would urge upon the Admiralty the great need of co-ordination between themselves and the Foreign Office. As was said by an hon. Member on the other side of the House, the question of pooled security should occupy their minds in the search for a sufficient number of bases to safeguard our position, especially in the Far East. If I might specify one direction I would particularly urge the pooling of security with France, Holland and Portugal, with special reference to their East Indian and Chinese possessions. A most fruitful and helpful line of consideration for the co-ordination of policy with great benefit to ourselves could be undertaken in that direction. In thus stressing the need for naval bases I would not suggest that naval bases alone will give us command of the sea, but I do say that without these naval bases for refitting and refuelling purposes it is impossible for our squadrons not merely to command the seas but even to keep them.
      In considering the technical composition of these squadrons any layman will very soon find himself both metaphorically and completely "at sea," but the British taxpayer and his representatives in this House have a right to ask one question very loudly and very persistently of the Admiralty and that is—Is the mammoth battleship really worth while? For the solution of that problem one must, of course, depend upon the opinions of experts and the results of experiments. One has heard of many experiments in America, and I gathered from the Noble Lord that we have taken part in similar experiments. I hope

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      that in spite of much talk to the contrary our experiments have been carried as far and with equally heavy bombs as those of the Americans. We must not put ourselves into a false sense of security as regards the invulnerability of battleships to bombs. Also, since freedom of manoeuvre in the past has made all the difference between victory and defeat, it seems to me that three small battleships with three 16-inch guns each would provide us with far greater liberty of manoeuvre than if we had nine 16-inch guns locked up in one "Lord Nelson." It follows that, whatever may be the results of experiments, the bigger the battleship the bigger the target and the more we can reduce the size of the battleship the more we reduce the risks.
      It has already been pointed out that because of their extreme unwieldiness the larger battleships have difficulty in getting out of harbour. One "Lord Nelson" stuck on a sandbank would deprive the commander-in-chief of a much greater proportion of his strength than if one of these smaller battleships became stuck on a sandbank. The smaller battleship would, however, be less prone to such mishaps. One thing that haunts the minds of those of us who cannot forget the Battle of Coronel, is that we find the Admiralty continuing to build small cruisers, armed with 6-inch guns, while all the other Powers seem to be concentrating on much heavier gunned cruisers. One wonders whether in this regard we are not simply preparing a greater number of human sacrifices. It is comforting, however, that the Admiralty has undertaken to increase the number of our cruisers and that we are not to compare our own need for cruisers with that of any other Powers. The need of other Powers for cruisers is merely to protect their mercantile marine. For us cruisers are necessary to protect our food and our life itself. Consequently, I do most earnestly urge right hon. and hon. Gentlemen on the other side to realise that when we are pressing for a big Navy it is not for the purpose of advertising what they would term the semi-bankruptcy of Imperialism, but because we believe in the same ideals in which they believe, that is to say, justice and fairness to the under-dog, and the maintenance of democratic British ideals. Those ideals flourish more healthily in
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      the British Empire, which means one-third of the population of the world, than in any other part, but it is impossible for them to flourish "against the envy of less happier lands" unless we are strong enough to show these "less happier lands" that it is not worth their while to try by force to take them from us. Our ideals can only flourish if we are virile enough to maintain them strongly. If we are not, then we deserve to lose them to those who are more virile than ourselves.
      9.6 p.m.
      Vice-Admiral TAYLOR: The House will wish me most heartily to congratulate the hon. and gallant Member for Wirral (Captain A. Graham) on his speech. He has dealt in an efficient mariner with naval defence and called attention to what is a very important point, the necessity not only for adequate bases but for bases upon which the Fleet can rely in time of war, because without them it would be impossible for the Fleet to operate at all. The hon. and gallant Member must have made a close study of naval questions, and we hope to have the opportunity of hearing him in further Debates in this House. In a White Paper issued last year it was stated:
      "In cases of aggression against ourselves we should be unable to secure our sea communications, the food of our people and the defence of our principal cities and their populations against air attack."
      In plain language that informed the country that the policy of disarmament carried out by successive Governments had placed the Navy of this country in such a weak position that it was no longer able to fulfil its function of giving security for our vital trade routes. A further proof of the deplorable weakness of the Navy has been given by the events which have taken place in the Mediterranean. In order that the Fleet in the Mediterranean might be brought up to adequate strength it has been necessary to deplete almost entirely our home forces and also those on foreign stations as well.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: Who said so?
      Vice-Admiral TAYLOR: That is what has happened. The hon. and gallant Member who spoke from the Socialist benches a short time ago said that it was only the policy of collective security which

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      would give us the security we all desired. The Prime Minister in his speech last week drew attention once more to the fact that the policy of the Government was to rely upon collective security. I quite agree that it is a magnificent ideal, and I should be entirely in favour of collective security if it existed, but, unfortunately, it does not exist and it never has existed. In my opinion to continue to rely for the security of our country and Empire, or to found our foreign policy, on collective security is to rely upon the substantiality of a quicksand. There is only one security upon which we can rely with any assurance at all, and that is the security which can be given by our own defence forces, the Navy, the Army and the Air Force. The White Paper issued this month lays bare the naked truth that we cannot rely on these forces to-day to give us that security which the country have a right to demand. And no wonder, from the naval point of view, when we realise that in 1937 we shall be faced with the necessity of replacing practically the whole of our battle fleet, almost one-third of our cruiser forces and 65 per cent. of our destroyer forces.
      The programme of the Government is to lay down two battleships in 1937, to include five cruisers in the 1936 programme, only one more than the normal, and to provide ultimately 70 cruisers, with the proviso that.10 of them are to be over age; to carry on a steady replacement programme for destroyers and submarines and that the construction of sloops and smaller craft shall continue on their normal basis, that is no increase whatever. In the opinion of the Government that is going to give us an adequate Fleet. But we are not told what the ultimate strength of our destroyer forces is going to be, and that is most important. It may be that the Government cannot tell us—I do not know why they should not be able to—but it is most important we should know to what strength in destroyer forces we are working. I asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty a question on that point to-day, and he told me that we were going to have 115. That is what we have now and, therefore, from his answer I understand that there is no proposed increase in our destroyer forces over what it is at present. If that is so,
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      it is most unsatisfactory, and will not meet the case.
      We are not given any information with regard to the time factor. That is very important too. We cannot afford to wait for an indefinite period before we obtain the security in our Navy, which we have a right to expect, but no information whatever is given by the Government as to when they expect the country will obtain this security. How long is it going to take to construct the new Battle Fleet and the cruisers? We know that at the present time it is taking four years, perhaps three years, and if there is a speeding up, two years; but we do not know how long it is going to take to construct these various units. To what programme as regards time are the Government working? I know that there are limitations. It is only possible for our industries to under take the construction of a certain number of ships at the same time, but it is vitally necessary that construction should be speeded up to the greatest possible extent.
      In regard to the question of destroyers I was not at all satisfied with the position as disclosed by the speech of the Parliamentary Secretary. We have 169, of which 110 are over age, that is 65 per cent. We are told that the policy of the Government is steady replacement. We have been told that there was to be. steady replacement year after year as the Navy Estimates came up in this House, and that steady replacement has meant one flotilla of destroyers. Therefore, it is of some moment that the House and the country should know what is really meant by steady replacement. Are we to have only one flotilla, or are we to have two flotillas? It will make all the difference in the world. In order to overtake this enormous deficiency in under-age cruisers, it is necessary to lay down considerably more than were laid down under the policy of steady replacement in previous years. We can be steady going fast just as well as steady going slow. I suggest also that in considering the number of our destroyers, we ought to take into account to a greater extent than has been the case in the past the destroyer and submarine forces of foreign Powers.
      I entirely disagree with the views of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) concerning

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      the London Treaty. I say that that Treaty ought never to have been signed by this country. We had no right whatever to sign it, and I will give the House my reasons for making that statement. That Treaty was to have been a. five-Power Treaty, with three European Powers, America and Japan. Now, it is absolutely essential that this country should remain supreme in European waters. We would like to be supreme in the Far East also, but if we are to maintain our position, we must at any rate be supreme in European waters. Of the three European Powers concerned with the London Treaty, France and Italy refused to sign, but this country signed and bound us hand and foot. France and Italy had a free hand, of which they took full advantage. What did France do? She built M so called destroyers of nearly 3,000 tons displacement and armed with 5.1 inch guns—the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough knows all about them—and she has 12 others being built. We have no reply whatever to those destroyers.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: Does this country propose to fight France?
      Vice-Admiral TAYLOR: When we are considering our defence forces, we have to take into consideration the forces of every other Power. How ridiculous it would be to say that we will not take into consideration the forces of France! No doubt the right hon. Gentleman would not take into consideration the forces of any other foreign country. Very well, if the right hon. Gentleman will be satisfied with providing this country with the necessary cruising forces to give security to 85,000 miles of trade routes, with the numbers that are actually required for convoys, etc., I will agree with him—but he will not. His policy is 50 cruisers, and that is totally inadequate.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: The Admiralty has not always held that view. I hope the hon. and gallant Gentleman is not putting that view forward as being the Admiralty's point of view.
      Vice-Admiral TAYLOR: My answer to the right hon. Gentleman is this. If the following question is put to a naval ex- pert, "Supposing you are assured of 10 years' peace, how many cruisers will you require?" he will give one answer. If the same expert is asked, "How many
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      cruisers do you require to give security to our trade routes?" and no qualifications are put, he will give quite another answer. I would very much like to know what question was put to the naval experts when they said 50 cruisers would be enough. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will tell me.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: I agree that the first question was put, but I was not there then, since it was put during the Washington Conference.
      Vice-Admiral TAYLOR: There can be no question whatever that 50 cruisers is totally inadequate, and for years the naval experts have told us that the minimum is 70 cruisers. I will return to the destroyer problem. We must not only take into consideration the destroyer forces of other nations, but we must remember the very large submarine forces possessed by France and Italy. France has 82 submarines and eight in course of building; Italy has 64 submarines and eight in course of building. Are these not to be taken into account? Have they no relation at all to the strength of the destroyer forces required by us? Another factor which must be taken into account is the additional menace to our merchant fleet from the air. All these things—the air menace to our merchant fleet, the paucity of our own numbers, 65 per cent. over age, the strength of the destroyer and submarine forces of France and Italy—point to the necessity for an increase in our destroyer forces. I am very dissatisfied with what was said by the Parliamentary Secretary. I understood him to say that we would continue with the 115 destroyers. If that be so, the number is totally inadequate.
      There is another consideration to which I would like to refer. The services carried out by a destroyer involve a great deal of time at sea. The destroyer has to be kept at sea in all weathers, and in order that it may carryout its functions, we must be reasonably certain that the likelihood of a breakdown is reduced to a minimum. It is well known that two years ago, in the manoeuvres in the Atlantic, several of the destroyers could not face it and had to put back to port—a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. So long as we have 110 destroyers over age, we shall never get rid of that very distressing possibility. I agree with the Parliamentary Secretary that in certain

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      areas a. sloop could take the place of a destroyer on convoy. That is true in certain areas, but not in areas where a sloop could be attacked by a destroyer, because a sloop would not have a chance against a. modern destroyer. The area in which sloops can work is a somewhat restricted one. Consequently, I do not think the argument that the sloop and the old destroyer can be utilised in convoys can be taken without a good deal of qualification.
      I would like now briefly to deal with the question of battleships. The policy of the Government is to lay down two battleships in 1937. It is a very significant fact that France is already building four and Italy two battleships, and that Germany already has three pocket battleships, which are not by any means to be treated with contempt, we have only three ships in the Service which can catch them. They have gained a start on us in the building of a new battle fleet. These are very serious considerations and we cannot afford to be behind-hand in rebuilding and renewing our battle fleet. I hope the Government will be able to give some indication not only as to the laying down of two battleships in 1937, but as to their policy and plan for the renewal of the Battle Fleet. We cannot afford to waste time in that respect.
      I would like to deal with the question of the cruisers, because the cruisers are extremely important. The right hon. Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) has dealt very adequately with that matter. He pointed out the tragedy of the Washington Treaty, which forced us to build 10,000 ton cruisers with 8-inch guns, the very worst ships ever built for His Majesty's Navy. We built them, not because we wanted them, but because America and other nations said that they were going to build them. We did not want them; they are a deplorable weakness. The London Treaty still further crippled our cruiser forces. We had the limitation on replacement tonnage and total tonnage. At any rate, the Government to-day say that we are going to have 70 cruisers. But 10 of them will be over age. What do they mean by that? If the Government admit that the minimum number which we require for our security is 70, surely to goodness every one of them should be under age,
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      up-to-date and efficient. We have 51 today. Nineteen of them are over age, one will be over age in 1937 and four will be over age in 1938. So that within the next few years to make up the Government programme there will have to be 19 additional cruisers and 14 replacement cruisers, and that will still leave us with 10 over age. It is important that the Government should give some indication of the length of time we shall have to wait before we have an adequacy in cruiser strength.
      I would like to deal for a very short time with the question of the size of the battleship. The United States of America still, I understand, is determined to build a 35,000 ton battleship and she gives as her reason her paucity of bases away from home and that she must have a 35,000 ton ship which can operate when far removed from her own bases. That presupposes that there is something in a 35,000 ton ship which it is not possible to put into a 25,000 ton or a 14,000 ton ship. That is a complete fallacy and there is no justification whatever for such an argument. Not even a 35,000 ton ship can operate for an indefinite period far removed from a bare. It would either be obliged to have a base of its own or to rely on the base of an ally. I do hope that we are going to revert to what our policy was in the past. We have always set an example to the world in the ships we built. We built the ships we required, not what we thought other nations were going to build. Other nations followed our example, and I feel confident that if we were to revert to that policy and build the ships we required other nations would follow our example. I hope that we shall not build 35,000 ton battleships but the ships we require. To build ships which are larger than is necessary for the functions they have to perform is a waste of money and effort, and I hope that we will break away from that policy.
      I want to say something about personnel. It is very important. It is no good our building ships unless we have the personnel to man them, and recruitment should precede construction. It takes far longer to train an officer or a man than it does to build a ship. To-day every one knows that there is a deplorable shortage in the personnel of the Navy. All the shore establishments have been combed out until there are not sufficient men there to provide a care and main-

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      tenance party, let alone anything else. I would like to put this to the Parliamentary Secretary. We can get—we always have been able to get—as many boys as are required for the Service, but all the time the older men—the highly trained men and the petty officers—are leaving the Service. We are very short of them to-day. The Admiralty have taken steps to try to get some of them back. I wonder what success they have had? But notwithstanding the number of boy recruits which you can get they will take nearly twice as long before they are capable of manning the ships as it takes to construct the ships themselves. What do the Government propose to meet that situation? I think that there will be also a very serious shortage of junior officers. There will be great difficulty in getting junior officers in sufficient numbers to man the new ships. What are the Government going to do about that? There are a good number of young officers who have retired under various retirement schemes. Are any of these going to be brought back into the Service? There is a large number of lieut.-commanders who have passed through the promotion zone, who looked upon the Navy as their career, and, due to the War and to no fault of their own, have passed through that zone and have no prospects in the Service, whose whole career has gone, who are in the prime of life and are highly trained. Is there nothing which the Admiralty can do to keep some of these officers on in the Service I would like to know how the Admiralty propose to meet the shortage of men and of junior officers for the new construction.
      Finally, I would like to add my voice to those raised for turning the Fleet air arm over to the Admiralty, in its control and administration, completely. The Fleet air arm is one of the units of the Fleet just as the submarines, destroyers and sloops are units of the Fleet. It is well known that the present system does not work well and that the efficiency of the Fleet air arm is not what it ought to be. The Navy requires machines of its own special design. I believe that, up to the present time, the Army machines have had alterations made to them and that the alterations have reduced the performance of the machines. That is most unsatisfactory. The Navy relies upon the Royal Air Force for the machines, for skilled mechanics, for the
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      training of pilots and so forth. But who should know better than the Admiralty what is required in the training of the personnel and what type of machine is required? We shall not have an efficient Fleet air arm until the Admiralty have complete control of it, and I hope that the new Minister, whom I congratulate upon his appointment, will give that question his earnest consideration at the earliest possible moment.
      My last word is this: We have heard a great deal about bombing from the air and the danger of bombs dropping on the decks of ships. In nay opinion that is not the chief danger to the Navy. The chief danger is that the dockyards, on which the Navy relies, may be bombed and destroyed and the Navy's bases rendered useless. I hope the Government will be able to give some assurance to the country that the defence which already exists or which can be brought into being to protect the dockyards at Malta, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Chatham, is adequate to ensure reasonable security for the maintenance of our Fleet.
      9.37 p.m.
      Lieut.-Commander TUFNELL: We ought to be grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Norfolk (Mr. De Chair) for having brought this Amendment before us. It has given the House an opportunity of debating the necessity for an adequate Fleet and has enabled us to hear the whale case for the battleship put forward most clearly. I think my Noble Friend has shown very lucidly the necessity of the battleship in the organisation of the Fleet and the desirability of allowing an inquiry into the whole question. He has shown that he has a free mind on the subject and I hope that when it comes to a question of replacing our battleships we shall have a full court of inquiry and that definite information will be given to the country as to the advantages of battleships. It is very necessary at this moment to emphasise the importance of an adequate Fleet because there are so many air enthusiasts at the present time who appear to be possessed of the one idea that the Fleet could be replaced by and its duties carried out by aircraft. I would remind them that the Air Force as well as the Army or Navy requires oil for its operations, and that it is only by an adequate

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      Fleet that it is possible to ensure the supply of oil to this country. An Air Force can be as much paralysed by lack of oil as a battle fleet can be hampered in its operations by lack of an efficient Fleet Air Arm.
      I was glad to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Elland (Mr. Levy) point out the great necessity of a strong and efficient Fleet Air Arm. The Air Arm is the eyes of the Fleet. It enables the Fleet to withstand enemy air attacks; it can carry out the necessary operations for "spotting" and it can assist in the job of dealing with both submarine and air attacks on merchant shipping. But aircraft are necessarily limited in their radius of action. The Fleet supplies patrols and escorts in rough weather, in tropical weather, in Arctic cold, in mist and darkness, whereas aircraft become useless in case of fog or mist, are unreliable in rough weather, and at present are unable to remain at sea for months on end, keeping in contact with convoys and so forth. There are 3,000 British merchant ships at sea at the same time. Of that number, 90 per cent. are out of sight of land and outside the range of fighting aircraft operating from land. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Lieut.-Commander Fletcher) mentioned the importance of oil. It is estimated that in a future war we should have to import 1,000,000 tons of oil, employing 100 ships, per month. The Navy will be required to provide escorts for those ships in order to ensure that our defence forces shall not be immobilised by lack of oil. I hope that the Admiralty will continue to build up and develop oil reserves in this country and encourage the production of oil from coal by buying up any surplus supplies which are available. To have proper oil reserves in this country is vital to our defence, and we should see that our oil supply is out of range of destruction by any foreign Power. The tanks should be well protected and removed as far as possible from the risk of attack from the air.
      I come back to the question of the necessity for an adequate Fleet and I congratulate the Admiralty on placing before the country a policy of maintaining the strength of the Navy, of repairing our deficiencies in battleships and increasing the number of our
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      cruisers. I would emphasise the point made by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for South Paddington (Vice-Admiral Taylor) on the question of personnel. We have recently seen the result of a shortage of personnel, in an emergency. That emergency, I believe, has been safely got over, but it does point to the fact which I hope the Government are considering that in any sudden emergency there should be a potential reserve of officers and men who would be immediately available to take command of the thousands of extra vessels which would be required for patrol duties and convoy duties. I believe that at the present moment the Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve have annual refreshers for officers and men so that they are capable of taking part immediately in case of emergency. I wonder if it would not be possible for such a scheme to be inaugurated for the Navy.
      There must be thousands of men who have left the Service, thousands of naval officials who were "axed" and have retired since the War, whose knowledge is rusting with years, but who if they were given an opportunity of having short courses occasionally to modernise their nautical knowledge would form great potential reserves capable of jumping into the gap in the case of a sudden emergency. It would be a great thing to have that potential reserve. I will not continue, but I would like to say in conclusion how very much I appreciate the efforts of the Admiralty in their policy of maintaining the strength of the Navy. I hope they will expedite this policy, because time is precious if we are to take an effective part in trying to preserve the peace of Europe and carry out our part is collective security.
      9.48 p.m.
      Mr. SANDYS: We are discussing the need for an adequate Navy and I think it would not be right if I did not straight away pay a tribute to the Parliamentary Secretary and his opening speech. There is no fear, I think, that the Admiralty are not fully alive to the need, but I would like to ask my Noble Friend to give us some reassurance on two matters. The first is with regard to the question of cruisers. Not many of us criticise the Government very seriously for their policy in the past of trying to lead the world on

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      the path of disarmament. That policy has unfortunately failed, but that is no fault of theirs. Now that we are obliged to steer a very different course, and are obliged to recognise that the effort towards disarmament has failed, I think some of us are a little disquieted to see that in the programme set out in the White Paper on Defence the figure of cruisers at which the Government aim is fixed at 70. That was thought the minimum only a few years ago, when conditions were very different and when the height of armaments throughout the world was considerably lower than to-day, and the general unrest which we now experience was not so prevalent. We wonder whether the figure of 70 is now really adequate in view of the higher degree of danger, uncertainty and emergency. I would like my Noble Friend if he can to give a word of explanation on that point.
      I would like also to support my hon. Friend who has just sat down on the question of oil and other supplies in this country. We know, and the Government admit, that at the present moment the number of our naval vessels is far fewer and the vessels are far older than we should like. I would ask His Majesty's Government to give us an assurance that they will leave no stone unturned in providing all possible means for sparing the Fleet unnecessary duties in the way of convoy. I ask, first, that they should develop to the utmost the possibility of producing oil from coal, as my hon. Friend urged just now, and secondly that they should work out a very definite scheme, and develop it with the utmost speed, for the storage of oil and grain and all other non-perishable commodities which in time of war would otherwise have to be imported under the convoy of naval ships.
      Lastly, let me say that I think this Debate has shown that there is no justification for supposing that Members of this House are losing their faith in the Navy or are being led to believe that the Navy no longer plays the important part that it did in the past. There is some evidence of a school of thought which believes that the Air has replaced the Navy, but I would urge both schools of thought not to compete with one another but to recognise that the future of these two arms lies in proper co-operation and in closer co-operation between them rather than in fruitless competition.
      9.54 p.m.
      The CIVIL LORD of the ADMIRALTY (Mr. Kenneth Lindsay): It is so long since I addressed the House that I almost feel that I want to claim indulgence for a maiden speech. First I should like to congratulate the hon. Member for South-West Norfolk (Mr. De Chair) on his very fluent speech. I think it was peculiarly fortunate that it should fall to him to win his first ballot on the Naval Estimates, and we listened to a speech which was packed full of information. Fortunately he answered most of the questions which he put, and therefore he has left me very little to say. Indeed, taking the Debate as a whole, I think it may be said that most hon. Members who have spoken tended to give information to my Noble Friend and myself, for which we are very grateful, rather than to raise specific questions.
      There are, however, four or five questions which run through the whole Debate. In so far as this Amendment calls attention to the Estimates and the White Paper, the original speech of my Noble Friend and his later answer are adequate to the occasion. The Amendment also calls attention to the predominant importance of sea power. All I feel like saying to that is "Agreed," and to pass on to Estimates, because you can either say one word or write a. long essay about sea power and the Empire. To those who would like to see such a speech, I would recommend the rectorial address which was given at Edinburgh in 1920 by that great sailor whose passing we mourn to-day. The hon. and gallant Member for Wirral (Captain Graham), whom I seem to remember in old days at Oxford, made a very informing and interesting speech about the Eastern Mediterranean. I have some lurking agreement with many of the points he raised, but all I can say is that the Admiralty recognises the great value that a naval base might have in that corner of the world. It would be impossible for me to follow the hon. and gallant Gentleman in his speech in any further detail. The second question, which was referred to by the hon. and gallant Member for Cambridge (Lieut.-Commander Tufnell), by the hon. and gallant Member for South Paddington (Vice-Admiral Taylor), and by the hon. Member for Norwood (Mr. Sandys) was that of oil. I rather prefer to take that question in the

      155
      general argument that I want to put before the House.
      I have been re-reading debates on the Naval Estimates since the War with considerable interest. There are many hon. Members and right hon. Members who bear some responsibility for our present position. We have run grave risks in the cause of peace. I should like to pay my tribute to the Noble Lord who has now moved to another place for the quiet but persistent manner in which he has guided the Navy during the last four years. I approach this subject with an open mind, but with realism. I think that we have come to the end of an era in naval affairs, as in many others. It has been an era of yardsticks, ratios and quantitative restrictions, but what was possibly right in 1922, 1930 or 1931 is not necessarily right to-day. The security of our sea communications, as the Amendment says, forms the basis and the foundation of our system of Imperial defence. The varying needs of different countries call for different naval strengths. The acceptance of a smaller navy by other countries no more reflects on their dignity than our dignity suffers by having a smaller army than France, Germany, Russia or Italy.
      It is an interesting fact that no charge of aggressiveness is brought against the British Navy. Two specific questions are raised by this Amendment—what is adequate strength, and what are the changed conditions of naval warfare resulting from the development of the air arm? I want to say only a word on both those points, because my Noble Friend has already dealt with them. Subject to quantitative restrictions and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, the British Navy will be regulated by security, strategy and finance. There is an absolute standard and a relative standard, the latter bearing relation to the strength of other navies. Obviously, we must be able to meet any threat to our trade routes. The actual ships required to meet those conditions must depend upon strategic and political considerations. That is why it is impossible for me to answer specific questions about the 70 cruisers. These considerations are constantly kept under review by the Admiralty and the Committee of Imperial Defence.
      156
      The essence of the matter is simple even to a layman. If an enemy battle fleet occupies a strategic position and we cannot drive it away, our cruisers cannot do their work and our food imports cease. If our battle fleet occupies a strategic position and the enemy cannot drive it away, our cruisers can do their work and our food imports arrive at their destination. It follows, of course, that our battle fleet must be as strong as, if not stronger than, the enemy because our food imports are vital to our very life. This argument applies to the Empire as a whole because all history proves, I think without exception, that the ownership of overseas possessions is determined by the outcome of war in the main theatre. When all nations are agreed that unrestricted submarine warfare is against international law, attacks on merchant shipping should be similarly regarded. The only effective interference with merchant shipping would be attack on sight, and if it is to be really effective neutrals must be attacked as well. Such action would range the whole civilised world against the aggressor.
      As long as commerce is carried in surface vessels and not in the air, surface vessels will be required to protect them. I have tried to put this in simple language because clearly it is a technical subject and it has been raised by several hon. Members. Air forces have a limited radius of action; they cannot occupy a strategic position at sea. We must be able to deploy sufficient sea forces to protect our lines of communication where they run outside the radius of aircraft. This is the historic role of the Navy and is completely unchanged by the new position. There remains the position whether all this work of shepherding foodstuffs for long ocean passages will be nullified by enemy aircraft when ships come within their range. Subject to international law, the enemy might use this desperate move, but the aeroplane can only attack with torpedoes or bombs. The only difference from the old form of ordinary naval attack is that it is a vertical attack. One hon. Member said that aeroplanes might be away up in the clouds and get away very quickly. I would point out that if you cannot see your target at all and remain so high that your bombs drop anywhere, half the point of the new weapon of attack is immediately gone. My only point in raising this is to try

      157
      to show that the aeroplane will be no more immune from disturbance, damage and, possibly, destruction than the surface vessel.
      Special measures have been taken to deal with the submarine menace, with concentrated submarine attack. Similarly, very special measures are being taken to deal with air attack. My Noble Friend has referred to many such measures and any one who reads these Estimates closely will see a good many more measures which have already been taken. The point raised by the hon. Member for Elland (Mr. Levy) and others was the Fleet Air Arm. This most valuable extension of naval observation, reconnaissance and fighting strength is one, I suppose, of the few fundamental questions that must come before the new Minister, and I think those hon. Members who have given any thought to this question will agree when I say that it is peculiarly a matter for an unprejudiced and judicial mind to settle, to settle quickly and give a decision.
      I must apologise to hon. Members in all parts of the House for making a speech, a very short speech I hope, on defence without mentioning collective security. I have noticed a certain soporific effect that that phrase has on hon. Members. Aristotle long ago defined the first business of the governor as being to ensure to the governed two things, security and supply. We seem during this week end to have appointed a Minister for security, and I am informed that the Government are also considering the question of supply. If for once I have concerned the House with national security, it is because I think that the food and trade which are shared by hon. Members on both sides of
      the House are a vital part of our existence, and also because I believe there are principles of freedom and principles of conduct which are of infinite value both to ourselves and, perhaps, to the world and therefore worth defending. I come, as I say with a fairly open mind to this question, and I am not aware that all the quantitative restrictions in the past have necessarily produced a more happy situation with regard to the relative strengths of navies except during the immediate period after the War. Too many liberal constitutions and generous outlooks have been toppled over since my generation came back from the Great War, and I say that I believe we have got to look to our security and look to our supply. The spirit of the Navy is, I believe, an inspiration to the country. I say that because I have moved pretty freely during the last six months among officers and men, and I think you will find there three things. I would remind hon. Members opposite that the defence services and social services both require some obligations of citizenship. There is in the Navy to-day a high efficiency, a devotion to service and a love of peace. The Amendment, moved by my hon. Friend so fluently, is dedicated to the Navy and I, for one, delight to support it, and so will hon. Members on these benches.
      Mr. De CHAIR: I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.
      Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
      Question put, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."
      The House divided: Ayes, 217; Noes, 106.

      Division No. 100.]

      AYES.

      [10.11 p.m.

      Acland-Troyte, Lt.-Col. G. J.

      Bower, Comdr. R. T.

      Cooke, J. D. (Hammersmith, S.)

      Agnew, Lieut.-Comdr. P. G.

      Bowyer, Capt. Sir G. E. W.

      Cooper, Rt. Hn. A. Duff(W'st'r S.G'gs)

      Albery, I. J.

      Bracken, B.

      Cooper, Rt. Hn. T. M. (E'nburgh, W.)

      Alexander, Brig.-Gen. Sir W.

      Briscoe, Capt. R. G.

      Courtauld, Major J. S.

      Allen, Lt.-Col. Sir W. J. (Armagh)

      Brocklebank, C. E. R.

      Craddock, Sir R. H.

      Anderson Sir A. Garrett (C. of Ldn.)

      Brown, Brig.-Gen. H. C. (Newbury)

      Craven-Ellis, W.

      Anstruther-Gray, W. J.

      Bull, B. B.

      Critchley, A.

      Aske, Sir R. W.

      Burghley, Lord

      Crookshartk, Capt. H. F. C.

      Assheton, R.

      Butt, Sir A.

      Croom-Johnson, R, p.

      Astor. Hon. W. W. (Fulham, E.)

      Cartland, J. R. H.

      Cross, R. H.

      Atholl, Duchess of

      Carver, Major W. H.

      Davies, C. (Montgomery)

      Baldwin, Rt. Hon. Stanley

      Cary, R. A.

      Davies, Major G. F. (Yeovil)

      Balfour, Capt. H. H. (Isle of Thanet)

      Castlereagh, Viscount

      De Chair, S. S.

      Barclay-Harvey, C. M.

      Cazalet, Thelma (Islington, E.)

      Denman, Hon. R. D.

      Beaumont, Hon. R. E. B. (Portsm'h)

      Chamberlain, Rt. Hn. N. (Edgb't'n)

      Denville, Alfred

      Birchall, Sir J. D.

      Clarke, F. E.

      Dixon, Capt. Rt. Hon. H.

      Blindell, Sir J.

      Colfox, Major W. P.

      Dodd, J. S.

      Boothby, R. J. G.

      Colville, Lt.-Col. D. J.

      Donner, P. W.

      Bossom, A. C.

      Cook, T. R. A. M. (Norfolk, N.)

      Dower, Capt. A. V. G.

      Drewe, C.

      Law, R. K. (Hull, S.W.)

      Reed. A. C. (Exeter)

      Duckworth, G. A. V. (Salop)

      Leckie, J. A.

      Reid, Captain A. Cunningham

      Duckworth, W. R. (Moss Side)

      Lennox-Boyd, A. T. L.

      Reid, Sir D. O (Down)

      Dugdale, Major T. L.

      Levy, T.

      Reid, W. Allan (Derby)

      Dunne, P. R. R.

      Liddall, W. S.

      Remer, J. R.

      Eckersley, P. T.

      Lindsay, K. M.

      Rickards, G. W. (Skipton)

      Eden, Rt. Hon. A.

      Llttle, Sir E. Graham-

      Ropner, Colonel L.

      Edmondson, Major Sir J.

      Liewellin, Lieut.-Col. J. J.

      Ross, Major Sir R. D. (L'nderry)

      Elliston, G. S.

      Lloyd, G. W.

      Ross Taylor, W. (Woodbridge)

      Emery, J. F.

      Loftus, P. C.

      Rothschild, J. A. de

      Emrys-Evans, P. V.

      Lovat-Fraser, J. A.

      Russell, A, West (Tynemouth)

      Errington, E.

      Lumley, Capt. L. R.

      Salmon, Sir I.

      Erskine Hill, A. G.

      Lyons, A. M.

      Sandys, E. D.

      Evans, D, O. (Cardigan)

      Mabane, W. (Huddersfleld)

      Scott, Lord William

      Fleming, E. L.

      MacAndrew, Lt.-Col. Sir C. G.

      Seely, Sir H. M.

      Fremantle, Sir F. E.

      McCorquodale, M. S.

      Selley, H. R.

      Furness, S. N.

      MacDonald, Rt. Hn. J. R, (Scot. U.)

      Shakespeare, G. H.

      Fyfe, D. P. M.

      MacDonald, Rt. Hon. M. (Ross)

      Shaw, Major P. S. (Wavertree)

      George, Major G. Lloyd (Pembroke)

      McKie, J. H.

      Shaw, Captain W. T. (Forfar)

      Gledhill. G.

      Maclay, Hon. J. p.

      Shepperson, Sir E. W.

      Glyn, Major Sir R. G. C.

      Maitland, A.

      Shute, Colonel Sir J. J.

      Goodman, Col. A. W.

      Mander, G. le M.

      Simon, Rt. Hen. Sir J. A.

      Graham, Captain A. c. (Wirral)

      Manningham-Buller, Sir M.

      Smith, L. W. (Hallam)

      Greene, W. P. C. (Worcester)

      Margesson, Capt. Rt. Hon. H. D. R.

      Smith, Sir R. W. (Aberdeen)

      Gretton, Col. Rt. Hon. J.

      Markham, S. F.

      Somervell, Sir D. B. (Crewe)

      Gridley, Sir A. B.

      Mayhew, Lt.-Col. J.

      Somerville, A. A. (Windsor)

      Griffith, F. Kingsley (M'ddl'sbro, W.)

      Meller, Sir R. J. (Mitcham)

      Somerville, D. G. (Wlllesden, E.)

      Grigg, Sir E. W. M.

      Mellor, Sir J. S. P. (Tamworth)

      Southby, Comdr. A. R. J.

      Gritten, W. G. Howard

      Mills, Major J. D. (New Forest)

      Spens, W. P.

      Guest, Capt. Rt. Hon. F. E. (Drake)

      Mitchell, H. (Brentford and Chiswick)

      Stanley, Rt. Hon. Lord (Fylde)

      Guest, Maj. Hon.O.(C'mb'rw'll, N. W.)

      Moreing, A. C.

      Strauss, H. G. (Norwich)

      Gunston, Capt. D. W.

      Morgan, R. H.

      Strickland, Captain W. F.

      Hacking, Rt. Hon. D. H.

      Morris-Jones, Dr. J. H.

      Tasker, Sir R I.

      Hamilton, Sir G. C.

      Morrison, G. A. (Scottish Univ's.)

      Taylor, Vice-Adm. E. A. (Padd., S.)

      Hanbury, Sir C.

      Morrison, W. S. (Clrencester)

      Thomas, Rt. Hon. J. H. (Derby)

      Hannah, I. C.

      Munro, P. M.

      Thomas, J. P. L. (Hereford)

      Harbord, A.

      O'Neill, Major Rt. Hon. Sir Hugh

      Thomson, Sir J. D. W.

      Harvey, G.

      Orr-Ewing, I. L.

      Tree, A. R. L. F.

      Haslam, H. C. (Horncastle)

      Owen, Major G.

      Tufnell, Lieut.-Com. R. L.

      Heneage, Lieut.-Colonel A. P.

      Palmer, G. E. H.

      Turton, R. H.

      Holdsworth, H.

      Peat, C. U.

      Wakefield, W. W.

      Hope, Captain Hon. A. O. J.

      Penny, Sir G.

      Walker-Smith, Sir J.

      Hopkinson, A.

      Percy, Rt. Hon. Lord E.

      Wallace, Captain Euan

      Hulbert, N. J.

      Perkins, W. R. D.

      Ward, Irene (Wallsend)

      Hunter, T.

      Peters, Dr. S. J.

      Waterhouse, Captain C.

      Inskip, Rt. Hon. Sir T. W. H.

      Petherick, M.

      White, H. Graham

      Jackson, Sir H.

      Pickthorn, K. W. M.

      Wilson, Lt.-Col. Sir A. T. (Hitchin)

      Jones, H. Haydn (Merioneth)

      Pilkington, R.

      Wise, A. R.

      Kerr, Colonel C. I. (Montrose)

      Ponsonby, Col. C. E.

      Womersley, Sir W. J.

      Kerr, J. Graham (Scottish Univs.)

      Porritt, R. W.

      Wragg, H.

      Keyes, Admiral of the Fleet Sir R.

      Radford, E. A.

      Kimball, L.

      Ramsbotham, H.

      TELLERS FOR THE AYES.—

      Knox, Major-General Sir A. W. F.

      Rankin, R.

      Lieut.-Colonel Sir A. Lambert Ward

      Lamb, Sir J. Q.

      Rathbone, J. R. (Bodmin)

      and Mr. James Stuart.

      Latham, Sir P.

      Rayner, Major R. H.

      NOES.

      Adams, D. (Consett)

      Edwards, A. (Middlesbrough E.)

      Leach, W.

      Adams, D. M. (Poplar, S.)

      Edwards, Sir C. (Bedwellty)

      Lee, F.

      Adamson, W. M.

      Fletcher, Lt.-Comdr. R. T. H.

      Leonard, W.

      Alexander, Rt. Hon. A. V. (H'lsbr.)

      Gardner, B. W.

      Leslie, J. R.

      Ammon, C. G.

      Garro-Jones, G. M.

      Logan, D. G.

      Banfield, J. W.

      Green, W. H. (Deptford)

      Macdonald, G. (Ince)

      Barnes. A. J.

      Grenfell, D. R.

      McEntee, V. La T.

      Barr, J.

      Griffiths, G. A. (Hemsworth)

      McGoverr, J.

      Batey, J.

      Groves, T. E.

      Maclean, N.

      Bellenger, F.

      Hall, G. H. (Aberdare)

      MacNeill, Weir, L.

      Benson, G.

      Hall, J. H. (Whitechapel)

      Marklew. E.

      Bevan, A.

      Hardie, G. D.

      Marshall, F.

      Brooke, W.

      Henderson, A. (Kingswinford)

      Maxton, J.

      Burke, W. A.

      Henderson, J. (Ardwick)

      Messer, F.

      Cape, T.

      Holland, A

      Milner, Major J.

      Charleton, H. C.

      Hollins, A.

      Montague, F.

      Chater, D.

      Hopkin, D.

      Morrison, R. C. (Tottenham, N.)

      Cluse. W. S.

      Jagger, J.

      Naylor, T. E.

      Cocks, F. S.

      Jenkins, Sir W. (Neath)

      Oliver, G. H.

      Compton, J.

      John, W.

      Paling, W.

      Cove, W. G.

      Johnston, Rt. Hon. T.

      Pethick-Lawrence, F. W.

      Daggar, G.

      Jones, A. C. (Shipley)

      Potts, J.

      Davies, R. J. (Westhoughton)

      Kelly, W. T.

      Pritt, D. N

      Davies, S. O. (Merthyr)

      Kennedy, Rt. Hon. T.

      Quibell, J. D.

      Dobble, W.

      Kirby, B. V.

      Richards, R. (Wrexham)

      Dunn, E. (Rother Valley)

      Lathan, G.

      Riley, B.

      Ede, J. C.

      Lawson, J. J.

      Ritson, J.

      160

      161

      Robinson, W. A. (St. Helens)

      Stephen, C.

      walker, J.

      Rowson, G.

      Stewart, W. J. (H'ght'n-le-Sp'ng)

      Watkins, F. C.

      Sexton, T. M.

      Strauss, G. R. (Lambeth, N.)

      Watson, W. McL.

      Shinwell, E.

      Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)

      Williams, T. (Don Valley)

      Short, A.

      Thorne, W.

      Wilson, C. H. (Attercliffe)

      Silverman, S. S.

      Thurtle, E.

      Windsor, W. (Hull, C.)

      Simpson, F. B.

      Tinker, J. J.

      Young, Sir R. (Newton)

      Smith, E. (Stoke)

      Viant, S. p.

      Smith, T. (Normanton)

      Walkden, A. G.

      TELLERS FOR THE NOES.—

      Mr. Whiteley and Mr. Mathers.

      Supply accordingly considered ire Committee.
      [Lieut.-Colonel Sir CHARLES MACANDREW in the Chair.]

      PERSONNEL.
      Motion made, and Question proposed,
      "That 99,095 Officers, Seamen, Boys, and Royal Marines be employed for the Sea Service, together with 8 S for the Royal Marine Police, borne on the books of His 'Majesty's Ships, at the Royal Marine Divisions, and at Royal Air Force Establishments, for the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1937."
      10.21 p.m.
      Mr. AMMON: Might I ask you, Sir Charles, for the guidance of the Committee, whether you will allow a rather wide Debate on Vote A on the understanding, of course, that there would be no repetition in the case of the other Votes?
      The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: Yes, as long as there is not too much detail introduced which would properly relate to other Votes.
      Mr. AMMON: I beg to move,
      "That 95,095 Officers, Seamen, Boys, and Royal Marines be employed for the said Service."
      The House must have been intrigued, in the discussion which took place earlier, by the fact that, while a conference is now sitting to consider ways and means of peace, the whole line of the discussion has been as though we were on the verge of war and preparing to be plunged into it immediately. In view of what has been said about the Navy as an obsolete weapon, we have had an astonishing amount of evidence from all quarters as to the efficiency of and the need for this arm of our national defence. It is interesting to note that, while the hon. and gallant Member for South Paddington (Vice-Admiral Taylor) endeavoured to make our flesh creep by outdoing the Prime Minister in indicating the state of decadence into which the Royal Navy had fallen, the right lion. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) expressly
      162
      dissociated himself from any such idea, and admitted that the British Navy was stronger and more efficient than any other navy in the world.
      I am moving to reduce the Vote in order to get answers to one or two specific questions. When my right hon. Friend the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) was First Lord of the Admiralty, he brought to the House proposals, which were carried, for reducing the number of personnel, and the effect was that, over a period of about three years, there was a reduction of 8,648 and a saving of something like £3,000,000. That was based primarily on a reduction in the number and size of the ships, in accordance with the agreements reached at the London Naval Conference. One may ask what has happened since then to afford grounds for the present increase in the strength of the Navy. It was then definitely shown that the Navy was overmanned, particularly in regard to the shore establishments. There are hardly any more ships now, and a considerable number are going into dock for refit and reinstatement, which will take several years, so that it is difficult to see on what ground the Admiralty can base the claim which they now put forward for an increase which will bring us back practically to the numbers of 1928. That rather gives the impression that, so far from this increase being necessary, the Government have made up their mind to try to intimidate the nation. Once again we have a right to ask why is the House not to receive any information as to what is taking place at the Naval Conference. The Noble Lord made a most astonishing answer to my right hon. Friend, who said that at the Conference of 1930 a White Paper was issued indicating, as far as was possible, the business of the Conference and asked why that could not be done now. The Noble Lord replied that they could not issue a White Paper because they were afraid that the Conference would break up.
      Lord STANLEY: The negotiations were all confidential. The only things that we could have published would have been reports of confidential negotiations, and I believe the publication of those reports would have done definite damage.
      Mr. AMMON: Is not the House entitled to know at least what is the policy of our own Government and what proposals they are putting before the Conference? We are not asking them to divulge anything that happened with regard to other nations, but at least we have a right to know what proposals this Government is making. We are being asked to sign a blank cheque. No one knows to what we are being committed. It seems that, under cover of an alleged Naval Conference and a so-called endeavour to bring about what is called collective security, the nation is to be committed to a race in naval armaments of which we do not know the possible extent. Surely that is something that we have a right to press, and I press it again. The whole thing is being used as a cloak for an endeavour to push forward further armaments. If it is to be simply an excuse for that, we had better give up the whole thing and say it is an absolute failure and come out fairly and squarely with the suggestion made by the hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for South Paddington that we are arming against the world and have no concern whatever with regard to other nations. The Government have got into a state of panic, and are trying to rattle the nation into a state of panic, with regard to the armaments position as with the problem of unemployment. It is a most expensive and unsatisfactory attempt to endeavour to deal with the problem of unemployment on lines of armament manufacture and to try at the same time to tell the people that it is necessary to arm for security. It shows that all the talk that we have had about endeavouring to find ways and means of agreement by peaceful negotiation is so much eyewash and it is being made an excuse on every hand to encourage further armaments.
      The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping said with regard to expenditure at Singapore that it was not aimed at Japan. All we were concerned with was looking after affairs in the Indian Ocean. I ask the question, as I draw attention to the speech of the hon. and
      164
      gallant Member for North Portsmouth (Sir R. Keyes), against whom can you be arming in the Indian Ocean if not Japan? No other nation is concerned there except our own Dominions. The hon. and gallant Member for North Portsmouth was a little more candid about it. He made it expressly clear that it was Japan upon whom we had our eyes. The late Lord Beatty was in the Admiralty in 1924 when it was my task to oppose the Singapore scheme. He asked me to look at the map and called my attention to the fact that I had suggested that it was an unfriendly action towards Japan. He pointed out that the distance from Japan to Singapore was as far as the distance from New York to Plymouth, and therefore asked how could it be suggested that that was any threat against Japan? When I suggested that it was as far the other way he dismissed the suggestion by saying something uncomplimentary about politicians.
      The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping said that there must be parity with the United States. This seems to be extraordinary at a time when, in order to give full security, we should apportion out the work we have to do to keep the peace of the world. He went on to condemn the 10,000-ton cruisers. Whilst admitting that that standard was set up by the United States, surely you are simply following the line of parity in that particular direction. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping is a good forgetter. He always fails to remember the most inconvenient things. Somewhere about 1930 there was a little perturbation in this House when attention was called to the fact that the right hon. Gentleman had read from a secret despatch sent by the Prime Minister indicating the opinion of the Committee of Imperial Defence with regard to the discussions going on in Washington. Hon. Members who were in the House at the time will remember that there was a good deal of concern about fast despatch being quoted. One of the principal items in the despatch was t suggestion that discussion should cease after the question of capital ships an l aircraft carriers had been considered, aid not the question of cruisers. If there is any complaint in regard to the cruiser position, it cannot

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      be laid at the door of my right hon. Friend.
      It has been brought out most effectively in all the discussions that, whatever may he said with regard to the conditions of the Navy, the age of certain ships and the strength of certain arms, it indicates that the British Navy is stronger, more efficient and better manned than any other Navy in the world. So little do the Government think of these weapons being obsolete, that actually on page 356 of the Estimates there are enormous sums of money set down to be spent on refitting and re-equipping them. Refitting of the "Malaya" is to cost £976,963. On the "Warspite" a sum of £2,114,214 is to be spent, although the original cost of the ship was only £2,524,148. The money to be spent on "Revenge" is £279,100 and on "Royal Oak" £998,669. On "Renown" the cost is not yet available but up to now the cost has been £720,252. On "Repulse," which cost originally £2,829,087, we are to spend £1,474,924. The comment on these figures is that it is obvious that if these ships are so obsolescent and so useless the Government stand indicted very strongly for a tremendous waste of public money in this respect. We should like a little more information with regard to that expenditure.
      I should like to put a few questions with regard to the Estimates. In his opening speech the Parliamentary Secretary made reference to the fact that on all the capital ships there will be provision made for carrying aircraft.
      Lord STANLEY: When they are refitted.
      Mr. AMMON: And in the new construction.
      Lord STANLEY Lord STANLEY indicated assent.
      Mr. AMMON: May I ask whether this Vote for personnel includes the crews for the aircraft, or are the machines to be manned by naval ratings? Will the Noble Lord give an answer to the question of my right hon. Friend as to why there is such a marked difference in the cost of construction between the 7,000 tons and the 5,000 tons cruiser? The difference is extraordinary. We should also like an answer with regard to the educational facilities at Dartmouth. With respect to the question of oil fuel, some
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      doubt has been raised in the Debate whether it is worth while that we should be committed to the great expense that arises in the production of oil fuel from coal. The argument is that up to now it has not proved economic to produce oil from coal, but there are considerations other than the actual cost of the production of the oil. Something like £800,000 of expenditure goes in storage in various parts of the world in order that the necessary fuel may be there for the Navy. There is also the tremendous strategic advantage if you have a full supply of naval fuel in your own country, as we had in the days when our ships were all fired by coal. Is it not worth while to pursue the experiments, even if they cost something. It helps the coal industry as well as serving the strategical advantage of the country to develop oil from coal for supplies for the Navy.
      The Noble Lord gave us to-night what he called the credentials of those who form the Board of Admiralty. I was rather amazed to hear him make this statement, and rather intrigued as to the reason for it. Is it that the Government are trying to hide behind their expert advisers for the policy they are pursuing? Any question of policy must be determined by the Government; they have full responsibility. I demur considerably from the suggestion of bringing in expert and professional advisers. The Government must stand on their own feet; and at the moment their foundations are pretty insecure. They are speaking with two voices. Whilst anxious to indicate that they are pursuing a. policy of peace, their whole policy with regard to armaments is on the most jingoistic lines ever seen in this House. We have asked again and again against whom we are arming, but have got no answer. We cannot get the extent of the programme of the Government. All we know is that we are being committed to an expenditure and recruitment which take us back to the peak days of expenditure and personnel before the War.
      We get no information as to what is taking place at the Naval Conference, although there are alarmist rumours appearing in the Press and at home which receive neither denial nor confirmation, and yet we are asked to vote blindfolded

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      considerable mans of money and approve these large increases in our armed forces.
      10.44 p.m.
      Viscountess ASTOR: I am sorry to take up the time of the Committee at this late hour, but as representing a naval constituency, it is almost one's duty to speak on naval affairs. While the Navy is one of the most, romantic and interesting of Services, it is somewhat tragic that naval Debates in this House are about the dullest in the world. The hon. Member opposite has certainly covered a, wide range in his speech. He said that the Government had rattled the country on the question of armaments and then went on to say that they had failed to deal with unemployment.
      The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: I had noticed that, and considered his argument was used as an example.
      Viscountess ASTOR: I was wondering whether you had noticed it. I am astounded that the hon. Member should say that the Government's policy is a jingo policy, that the Government do not want peace but want to arm against the whole world. He said the Government are standing on rocky foundations. Let him persuade the country that he is right, and then the Government will not, be standing here at all, but will be blown to smithereens, because if the country thinks that any Government is leading it into war, that Government will be turned out at once. The reason the country returned the National Government—
      The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: I think the hon. Lady is not now following the example of the hon. Member to whom she referred.
      Viscountess ASTOR: I have sat here all day and heard hon. Members opposite talking as though the naval policy of the Government would lead the country into war, and it seems to me that hon. Members opposite know perfectly well that one of the reasons the country returned the National Government was that it was certain that if there were a Labour Government—[HON. MEMBERS: "The Navy!"]—This is the Navy I am talking about. I think the country was deeply grateful to the Prime Minister for the warning he gave concerning the situation of our defence forces. That is why the National Government was returned.
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      The hon. Member who preceded me spoke about the Naval Conference. He said he wanted to know what is going on and asked why there is not open diplomacy. I get bored by hearing people talk about that. You would not be able to get anything done if the whole world knew what you were going to do. The Labour party know that very well, for there is no open diplomacy in that party. One half of the Labour party does not know what the other half is doing. I think it is unfair to ask the Government to tell more than they have about the Naval Conference. I think the House ought to be deeply grateful that both France and Italy have stayed in the Naval Conference at this moment, but the hon. Member has forgotten that Japan left the conference. He asked why we are arming, but he knows perfectly well, when he talks of collective security, that if there is any collective security to-day it is because we have the British Fleet in the Mediterranean. Everybody knows that well enough.
      There are certain things one ought not to say, but there arc certain things one is bound to say. I listened to the speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander). I know that in his heart he is a big Navy man, and if he belonged to a party like ours he would do marvellous things. Naturally he has to be very careful with such a mixed lot behind him. I think he has done remarkably well to do as he has done. Half of those behind him want to turn the other cheek and the other half do not know which way to turn, but are dazzled and dazed. I cannot understand why hon. Members opposite are upset, for this tremendous programme of which they speak amounts to only two new cruisers and two new battleships. I do not intend to go into the merits of battleships. I hear too many people talking about things of which they know nothing.
      The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: The hon. Lady must keep to Vote A.
      Viscountess ASTOR: I would not dare to discuss this had it not been for the points made by the hon. Member who preceded me. I am merely answering his points. I have many things I want to say, but I am not going any further than he did. With regard to battleships, ail I would say is that while the House and

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      the country may be doubtful about some things, nobody in his heart begrudges the country a good strong Navy. They ask who are our enemies? They talk about Japan. Nobody is going to fight Japan, but if Japan attacks our possessions we have to be ready to meet them. I do not like people talking about hostilities. Although I represent a naval port I fought for the League of Nations when it was very unpopular. I still believe that peace is the most important thing in the world. Look at the world. We may be peaceful, but I believe that the peace of the world depends on our strength. But you do want to build up to your Treaty rights. I think the Washington Conference was a great success, and that the London Pact was a great success. All treaties are when they are kept. But no countries keep treaties when the time comes that they think it better to give them up.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: That is why your Government broke their pledge at Stresa. They promised to keep a united front, and walked straight back and made an agreement with Germany.
      Viscountess ASTOR: The right hon. Gentleman knows well that his Government never kept a single pledge. He talks about crises. He does not know a crisis when he sees it. We had a crisis in 1929, and he did not even know we had one. It is bad from the foreign point of view to say that the Government are out to fight the rest of the world. It is a wrong thing to say, and nobody in their heart believes it. Collective peace depends on the strength of England. I go further. I believe that world peace is going to depend on the British Empire and the United States keeping the seas free. I was delighted to hear what the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill), who is not my ideal of a peace dove, had to say. It is true that this is expensive, but the things that are most worth while are expensive. It will not be half as expensive to the country when the rest of the world knows that our Navy is fit as it would be if the world thought that we were going down. Everybody knows that we have led the world in disarmament, but the world has not disarmed. We hope to go on leading it, but I rejoice that the Government are in a position to keep the Navy as we ought to keep it.
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      To get back to the Vote. I congratulate the Government on having put a certain amount of work in the Royal Dockyards. I am certain that the Labour party, who believe in national ownership, will urge the Government to go on putting work in the Royal Dockyards. They must. They do not want the work to go into private yards and the money into the pockets of private enterprise. They want the Government to give more work to the dockyards. [HON. MEMBERS: "They could have done so."] They could have done so, I have no doubt, but pressure from the Labour party and the Clyde members was put on them to give some of it elsewhere. May I remind the Government that there is said to be a shortage of mechanics, fitters, boilermakers, coppersmiths, smiths, and patternmakers. We have in Plymouth unemployment even among those classes and it is interesting to know that we have 14 per cent. of unemployed insured men in Plymouth, whereas in some of the industrial areas it is only five per cent. or six per cent. If the Government are not going to give more work to Plymouth they ought to see whether they could not transfer some of these skilled men to other parts of the country. We know that there is a shortage in some of the shipbuilding areas and I ask them to consider that suggestion. I do not ask anything unreasonable. The Government ought to remember that these dockyard towns and particularly Plymouth, are dependent on the Navy. In other industrial areas where there is shipbuilding there is also some other industry but the case of Plymouth is different. There are in Plymouth 7,200 grown up men unemployed and they ought to get consideration.
      I am very sorry that in the Estimates there is no provision for marriage allowances in the Navy. The other day I noticed to my horror that even Territorial officers at the age of 21 were to get marriage allowances whereas we have been pressing for years without success for marriage allowances in the Navy. I hope, now that we have two young alert men at the Admiralty, who will have sympathy with the young married officers, something will be done. There are so many old men in the Admiralty who forget the case of the young married officer, but I hope that the two young men who have done so remarkably well to-day and

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      put their case so clearly will press the desirability of marriage allowances for officers in the Navy on the Admiralty and the Government. As I say, I feel strongly, that in the cause of peace, we ought to have a strong Navy. I would not say so unless I meant it. I believe we ought to keep our Navy as fit as possible because the whole world will be safer when the British Navy is as strong as it can reasonably be made.
      10.58 p.m.
      Mr. COCKS: As in previous years, I wish to raise the subject of promotions from the lower deck. Many years ago the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill), who was then First Lord of the Admiralty and whose mind ranges above narrow departmental considerations — perhaps that is the reason why he is still below the Gangway—stated that the Navy was a great national service and that its higher ranks should be open more widely to the people of the country as a whole. He introduced the mate scheme whereby commissions were open to the seamen's branch of the lower deck, and later that scheme was extended to the engineering branch and the Royal Marines. Then we had another First Lord, Mr. Walter Long, as he then was, who stated in 1920 that many admirable officers had been produced in this manner from the lower deck. Dealing with the age problem he stated that officers promoted from the lower deck would be on precisely the same footing with other officers and that the higher ranks would be within their reach. Later, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) became First Lord and set up the Larkin Committee, the result of which was that the rank of mate was abolished and members of the lower deck could be promoted to officers and given the same training as cadets.
      In 1931—I would like to ask the Committee to note this fact—that scheme began very well. Seventeen commissions were awarded in 1931 from the lower deck—12 in the executive branch, four in the engineering branch and one in the Royal Marines. Since that time the number of promotions from the lower deck has gone steadily down year by year. I have raised this matter year after year but there has been no improvement. Last year, instead of
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      there being 17 promotions as in 1931, there were only seven men promoted from the lower deck—three to the executive branch, three to the engineering branch and one to the Royal Marines. That is the lowest number in the whole history of promotions from the lower deck. It is not because the personnel of the Navy has decreased, nor because the number of officers has decreased. During that same period the number of cadets entered from Dartmouth increased by one-third and the number under the special entry scheme increased by three times. Nor is it beer use the officers that have been promoted have been found to be unsuitable. Of the officers in the first class promoted under the new regulations in 1933 one was second in the examinations held at Greenwich and another obtained the highest marks in gunnery and won the annual gold medal. In March last year the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, in reply to a question from me, gave the number of certificates obtained by the second class of officers. He stated that the regulations laid down for promotion were designed to enable such officers to compete with ex-cadets on equal terms. All these years the number of promotions from the lower deck has been decreasing and I would like to ask whether it is the intention of the Admiralty to allow the scheme to die out altogether or whether they intend to give more facilities for promotion from the lower deck to commissioned rank.
      Now let me take the fate of those officers after being promoted. Between December, 1928, and June, 1933, every half year there was on the average one promoted to lieutenant-commander, and four engineer lieutenant-commanders. Since June, 1933, only one lieutenant-commander who has risen from the lower deck has been promoted to commander and in the last half-year only two engineer commanders were promoted in that way. Let me come to the higher ranks. Mr. Walter Long said the highest ranks in the Navy should be open to men promoted from the lower deck. We know that in the Navy in the old days many admirals of renown came—I think the expression was—through the hawse pipe. Under this scheme only two have been promoted to captain on the executive side. Although 65 officers on the

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      engineering side who joined as artificers have been promoted commander no engineer captain has been promoted from the list of engineer commanders who joined as artificers. Does the Admiralty intend to promote any of these engineer commanders to the higher rank of captain, or does it intend to allow promotion to higher rank to die out?
      Another point I wish to raise is in connection with the Fleet Air Arm. In that arm there has been a large increase of pilots and observers, and no doubt there will be a larger increase as the arm extends. The Royal Air Force allows noncommissioned officers and petty officers to serve with the Fleet Air Arm, but the Navy does not allow petty officers and ratings to serve in that way. I understand that in the Navy they have introduced the pseudo-rank of observer for men who actually do the work of observers but are not allowed to qualify for commissions. In the Royal Air Force there are actually men serving with the Fleet in connection with aircraft carriers and so on, whereas the non-commissioned officers in the Navy are denied the same opportunity of becoming observers and obtaining commissions. That is an anomaly which should be altered. It is hard on the men in the Navy that they should not have the same opportunity as men in the Royal Air Force who are actually serving with them in the Fleet.
      The final point I want to raise is with regard to the engineering side of the Navy. On previous occasions the plea I am making for recognition of the engineering side has been supported by two Members who are no longer with us —Lieut.-Commander Marsden, who has ceased to become a Member of the House through the exigencies of political affairs, and the late Sir John Pybus, who was put on the retired list by the Lord High Admiral of the Universe. We have advocated that the engineering side of the Navy, to which the Service owes so much, should be given further recognition in the higher branches of the Service. We have advocated over and over again that an engineering officer should be included in the Board of Admiralty, and that the position of Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard is one eminently suitable for an engineering Rear-Admiral to fill. The Financial Secretary said two years ago that the Admiralty would give serious
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      consideration to this plea, and admitted that the engineering branch deserved recognition. I hope that the Admiralty will consider that matter again in order that the engineering branch may be given the recognition which its great services to the Navy demand.
      11.9 p.m.
      Mr. RALPH BEAUMONT: It is difficult to compare the Navy Estimates of this year with those of previous years because on this occasion there is no provision for a programme of new construction. It will, therefore, be impossible to get a proper view of naval policy, development and expenditure until the Supplementary Estimates dealing with the current year's programme are presented to the House, as no doubt they will he at a, later date. But although they do not tell the whole story, I think the Navy Estimates do give solid ground for satisfaction on the part of those of us who have for several years viewed with misgiving the slowing down of construction and the steady reduction of personnel. And it is with relief that we see that this policy is changed, that there is to be a speeding up of the construction already authorised in previous years, that there is to be steady progress with the refitting and modernising of our capital ships and, perhaps, especially that there is to be an increase in the personnel of the Fleet.
      The reduction in personnel that went on year after year was bound to impair the efficiency of the Fleet for a considerable period, and owing to the length of time it takes to make a trained seaman it was obvious that even when this process was reversed it would be some time before the leeway was made up. It is, therefore, very gratifying to see that this process has been reversed and that during the last year or so the numbers have shown a slight increase, and that in these Estimates there is a further increase of about 4,000 or 5,000 men. But there is the further reason why one welcomes this increase in personnel. There is no doubt that in recent years the shortage of men in the Navy has militated not only against the efficiency of the Service but also against the interests of the men themselves, and hon. Members who represent naval constituencies and who come into contact with naval ratings must have become fully aware of this

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      fact. For some time there have not been sufficient men to allow drafting, reliefs and other normal changes to take place without seriously upsetting the balance which it is most important to maintain between sea and shore service and between home and foreign service.
      The shortage of personnel has meant that there has not been a sufficient surplus available for these purposes, and the result has been that the men of the Navy have not always had their fair share of home service or of shore service. The increase in personnel must therefore be welcomed, because it will ease this state of affairs and help to restore the balance to the advantage of the men. It is to be hoped that the Admiralty will watch this position carefully in the future, and that whatever the duties and the commitments of the Fleet may be, the interests and the welfare of the men will not be jeopardised as they have been in recent years.
      These Estimates also give cause for optimism so far as the Royal Dockyards are concerned. We shall await with interest the publication of the programme of new construction and while it is only natural that much of this work should go to the distressed areas, it is also to be hoped that the claims of the Royal Dockyards will not be overlooked. The Noble Lady the Member for the Sutton Division of Plymouth (Viscountess Astor) mentioned Plymouth, but I would like to point out to my hon. Friend who is going to reply, that, whereas Plymouth and Chatham were each granted a cruiser last year, Portsmouth was not allotted one. At present we are fairly well employed on the construction of an earlier cruiser and with other work, but a year or two hence we may feel the lack of a cruiser of the 1935 programme on the stocks. I sincerely hope that when the construction programme is announced we shall at any rate get back to what has been for several years our normal allocation of one cruiser a year.
      But, so far as these Estimates go, the outlook for the Royal Dockyards during the coming year is quite good. During the lean years not only was there a slowing down of construction but there was also some holding up of repair work. The result has been a steady accumulation of this work. The dockyards have been extremely busy during the past year, and
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      look like continuing to be busy in the immediate future on work of this description. Several of these large repairs and refits are now in hand, and others are projected. This programme of modernisation is a very great boon to the dockyards, as this type of work provides the steadiest and most general employment to all trades in the yards.
      There is one matter in connection with the dockyards which I should like to mention, and that is the question of establishment. The prospects of the dockyards are quite good, employment has been very much better than during the last two years, and luring the next 12 months the dockyards are likely to be fully employed. In each of the last two or three years there has been an increase in the number of hired men, and there is provision in these Estimates for a slightly increased number. While there has been this increase in the n Amber of hired men, the number of established men has steadily decreased, and is continuing to do so. It cannot be otherwise, under the present regulation, whereby only one man is established for every four vacancies. And unless the one-in-one rule is adopted it can only be a question of time before pensionable establishment in the dockyards dies out altogether. After the War, the established list was a very large one, quite out of proportion to post-war needs, and it was therefore necessary to reduce the number drastically. That process is still taking place, but the time seems to have arrived when it should be stopped, owing to the prospect of more stable conditions of employment in the future.
      I believe the majority of hon. Members will welcome these Naval Estimates as a stage in the Government's policy of naval development. It is a great relief to know that the policy of cutting down the Navy has now been changed and that the process of making good our deficiencies is taking place. One hopes sincerely that the efforts of the Government to bring about an agreement to take the place of the Washington Treaty will meet with success, as it would certainly go far to limit expenditure. The making up of our deficiency is in no way inconsistent with our efforts to arrive at such an agreement, and whatever may be the outcome of tree present discussions, the size and strength of our Fleet should always be based on the necessity of safe-

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      guarding our vital interests all over the world.
      11.19 p.m.
      Sir ROBERT YOUNG: I rise for the purpose of bringing before the Committee a very great and genuine grievance. The Vote deals with the number of men required to man the Royal Navy. I desire to call attention to the position, qualifications and status of some of those men; I refer to the engineers of the Royal Navy. I trust I shall be able also to reach the ears of the Service Members of the Navy in this House. There is an old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind," and that is applicable to these men. Since Commander Bellairs left the House, no naval officer or ex-naval officer, as far as I know, has been able to find time to keep the service interests of these men before the House and before the Admiralty. Perhaps that is because they have not been engineers; he, I understand, was an engineer-commander, and therefore understood and appreciated their conditions of service.
      Since 1868, when the class of engine-room artificer was first established in the Royal Navy, the Navy has undergone vast changes in design, construction, engine-room equipment, and manning. In one sense the Navy is no longer composed of ships, but of intricate mechanical engines floating on the surface of the sea. The officer on the bridge, great as are his qualifications as a sailor and his responsibilities and powers as an officer, is, after all, of little consequence to prevent irretrievable disaster if the men in the engine-room are not fully skilled and free from feelings of discontent and resentment at their service conditions and at their lowered and depressed status as compared with others less skilled and with less length of service and fewer educational qualifications.
      From 1868 to 1925 the engine-room artificers, who are the mechanical engineers of the Navy, were rated as chief petty officers on entry. During that period their suitability was never called in question; in fact, their loyalty and their practical efficiency never ceased to receive praise from responsible officials. But in 1925 their status of chief petty officer was lowered to that of petty officer, by someone who, under the guise of economy or for some other reason, forgot the attributes of skilled experience
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      and made them inferior in rank to men of less skill and less length of service—indeed, to men who had served no apprenticeship in the engineering workshops of the country and no engine-room artificer's apprenticeship in any of the Admiralty training establishments. The results of this have been to keep the best class of men in our workshops from joining the Navy, to create anomalies in that Service, and to give these men the feeling that they were not well treated in the conditions in which they were placed. Besides that, the Admiralty reduced the standards of efficiency for new engineering entrants from the workshops outside. In my opinion, the status and service conditions of engineers in the Navy should be such that the best men employed in the Mercantile Marine of our country would feel it no indignity if they were suddenly called upon to serve as engine-room artificers in time of war.
      What have been the conditions of these men since 1925? The regulation of 1925 placed them in a position of inferiority, gradually diminishing their enthusiasm for and contentment in their sphere of service and causing them to feel that they are subject to an unfair and unjust and undeserved policy of oppression. I therefore trust that some of the things I am going to say will fall on the ears of the new Defence Minister. From 1925 all who entered the naval service, whether from the Admiralty mechanical training establishments or from the workshops of the country, are relegated to the rating of petty officer. I understand that a fourth class engine-room artificer may be, and indeed has been, called on in the absence of the engineer officer and the chief engine-room artificer on destroyers and other small vessels to take complete charge, even to taking the ship to sea, with all the staff working under his direction. Surely it is reasonable to ask that men liable to assume such serious responsibilities should be rated as chief petty officers, as they originally were. What I have said shows their qualifications.
      Now let me point out how unfair and unjust is the position in which they are placed. Was this reduced status brought about because some of the men who were brought in from the engineering workshops were trade unionists? This superimposing of semi-skilled men who were not trade unionists on skilled

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      men who were seems rather surprising to my mind. I have been in the House since 1918 with the exception of the last Parliament and with all my contact with all the First Lords, I have not yet been able to get it out of my mind that this reduced status is as much due to political bias as to the need for economy. Further let me explain the unfortunate and unfair position in which they are placed. A fourth class engine room artificer with a watch-keeping certificate in the engine room or boiler room may be lower in rank to a stoker petty officer on watch there, although the stoker petty officer is not a fully skilled man in the true sense of the word and, worse than that, the watch keeping engineer has a certificate. The stoker petty officer has no certificate and yet he may be superior to the engine room artificer who has a certificate.
      Lieut.-Commander AGNEW: On the other hand, a stoker petty officer has a certificate to get that he is competent to take charge of a stokehold at sea.
      Sir R. YOUNG: I am pointing out that a watch-keeping engine-room artificer may be in the engine room or boiler room lower than a stoker petty officer who has not taken a watch-keeping certificate. It does not seem to be right, but it is the fact. Things are not all ship-shape in the British Navy because of the absurd and always foolish position, that an engine-room artificer is the responsible watch-keeper and yet is unable to issue orders, as hon. Gentlemen will know, because an inferior cannot give orders to his ordained superior. He is unable to issue orders even if his technical knowledge reveals to him that defects are likely to arise through the actions of the stoker petty officer. I do not hesitate to say that that is the kind of thing you get through having Admirals, who are sailors but are not interested in, and know nothing about, the engine room. If I were First Lord of the Admiralty, I should be inclined to criticise them severely for encouraging this semi-skilled labour in the engine room of the ships of the British Navy. One would imagine that people interested in these questions would know something about them, but I wish to refer the Noble Lord to some correspondence in the "Daily Mail" last Tuesday, 10th
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      March, in which Lieut.-Colonel J. M. Tuke, Director of Naval Recruiting, wrote saying that the constant need of the Navy was for skilled ratings. I thoroughly agree with him, but he went on to say that the conditions of service are very attractive, for they rank as chief petty officers immediately on joining; there is no working up to be done as in other trades. I suggest that what Lieut.-Colonel Tuke wrote in relation to the status of these men is altogether wrong. Perhaps he is perusing the regulations and has only got as far as 1925, since which time, as I have pointed out, their status has been reduced.
      I propose to go further in my indictment on this matter. I should like the Noble Lord, and the Civil Lord, to take special note of the fact that, in addition to what I have said, a stoker petty officer, who may have sat for the stoker mechanician examination and have failed, is still reckoned superior to a fourth class engine-room artificer owing to length of service in petty officer rank, although the engine-mom artificer has had to pass a much more exacting examination for the post he holds. I wonder what the Noble Lord thinks of that? I do not think that he can justify a situation of that kind. That is not all. There is the further injustice, that a stoker mechanician with three years' service as such may sit for the examination for warrant rank, while an engine-room artificer, who is a skilled man, must wait six years for that privilege. I feel strongly disposed to write to the general secretary of my trade union recommending him to advertise in our journal, which circulates in this country and in the Dominions and Colonies, warning engineers against joining the Royal Navy under such conditions.
      I go further in showing how this preference for less skilled men rather than skilled men works. It is impossible for an engine room artificer, unless specially promoted, to reach the rating of chief engine room artificer, until well on into the second period of his service. That means that he will have approximately 15 years' engine room experience, plus five or seven years apprenticeship before he can reach the position of chief engine room artificer, whereas the stoker mechanician, the man who serves no apprenticeship in an engineering workshop and no apprenticeship in the

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      Admiralty training shops, can reach his position within the first period of his service, which means shorter length of service and less experience. Again, I ask, is that fair in the interests of the Navy itself? The anomaly exists that the man who has been to all intents and purposes a stoker labourer to the engine room artificer may be serving as stoker mechanician and counted as senior in rank to his former engine room artificer who has now become a chief engine room artificer. I ask the Noble Lord to realise that inferior workmanship may mean a very expensive luxury for the Royal Navy in time of war. I ask that a better professional status should be given to the engineers of the Royal Navy, equal to that which obtained before 1925; without it you will not secure the best standard of recruits from the workshops throughout the country, and you will not give sufficient encouragement to the engineering apprentices who have been trained in the Admiralty mechanical establishments. Those engineering apprentices are largely recruited from our secondary and public schools.
      I do not expect the Noble Lord to be able to give me an answer to my request to-night, but I sincerely trust that he will press upon the First Lord of the Admiralty to take this matter into serious consideration. I have every reason to know of the lower standard now set for engineering recruits for the Navy. Men get in with 40 per cent. of passes whereas at one time the standard was considerably higher. It arises from the fact that the best skilled men in the workshops will not enter the Navy under these conditions. It is essential that these things should be remedied not only in the interests of the men in the engine room, but in the interests of the Navy as a whole, as an integral part of our organised system of safety and defence. These engine room men are labouring under a sense of injustice. They have a reduced status, they work as juniors of men who have served no apprenticeship; a shorter time is needed for the unskilled man than for the skilled man to get warrant rank, and the unskilled man actually becomes senior to the man who is a chief engine room artificer. What I have said relates to a great and a very genuine grievance. Many of the men who join the Navy have been trained in
      182
      outside workshops as members of the trade union of which I was formerly general secretary, and I can assure him that there is considerable dissatisfaction.
      11.40 p.m.
      Mr. PETHERICK: I do not propose to follow the hon. Member in his powerful plea for engine room officers and men. The speech which appealed most to me was the short speech of the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Mr. Cocks) for increased facilities for promotion from the lower deck. The hon. Member has the sea in his blood and no doubt he is thinking of the facilities for promotion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Sir Cloudesley Shovel started from the bottom and became one of the foremost admirals who ever sailed the seas. I want to bring forward what may be regarded as a minor matter, but which is yet of some importance. We are voting an increased amount of money for the Navy and we must be careful that every penny is spent to the best possible purpose. We ought to be quite sure that the accountancy system in the Navy is thoroughly adequate and up to date. Paymaster officers are recruited in the same way as other officers, they have to take the ordinary examination and after a term as cadets go to sea for a year in the "Frobisher" for a course of seamanship and gunnery, in the same way as other naval cadets. After that they become paymaster midshipmen and go through the usual ranks. But I have reason to believe that the accountancy system in the Navy is somewhat archaic. Most naval officers with whom I have spoken agree that it is clumsy, entails a great deal of unnecessary expenditure and sometimes unnecessary staff. During the War outside interests were brought in, ordinary chartered accountants, who gave advice as to how the accounts should be taken. I hold no brief for chartered accountants. My only interest is that the accounts of the Navy should be properly kept. In business life it is necessary to have accounts kept on an up-to-date system for auditing purposes. In the case of one firm of which I am a director the accountancy was somewhat archaic and we called in a firm of chartered accountants who proposed certain improvements and changes in the system.

      183
      I suggest to my right hon. Friend who is going to reply that the Admiralty should at the present time call in eminent members of the accountancy profession from outside. I believe some of them would be prepared to give their services for nothing at, this time of national emergency; at any rate, I think the Admiralty might at least ask them to do so. I suggest that an outside committee be formed to advise the Admiralty as to whether its methods of accountancy and of training paymaster officers, whose duty it is to keep the accounts of the Navy, are adequate or not. It might very well be that such a committee would be able to make some admirable suggestions which would simplify the accounts of the Navy and be of considerable benefit. This is a small point, but I hope my right hon. Friend will go into it, and not, simply say that what is, is, and that the present system is admirable and works so excellently that there is no necessity to do anything.
      Lieut.-Commander AGNEW: Might I ask the hon. Member whether, as a complementary suggestion, he would agree that the services of some of the naval accountant officers should be loaned to civil life in order to show merchant houses how to keep their accounts?
      Mr. PETHERICK: I am not a merchant, but if I were, I should always be prepared to take advice, whether from naval officers or anybody else.
      11.47 p.m.
      Mr. STEPHEN: I have listened to these Debates on national defence with great interest. That which surprises me is the way in which hon. Gentlemen in this House contemplate this greatly increased expenditure with such equanimity. Hon. Members are evidently quite confident that somehow or other all these additional millions of pounds can be found without any difficulty, whereas when anyone suggests the need for the expenditure of so many millions for the improvement of the conditions of the people, we are told that the money is not there and cannot be found, that it is quite impossible, that everybody would like to see great improvements in social conditions carried out, but that
      184
      the money is not there. Now it appears that all these hundreds of millions of pounds can be found for expenditure upon instruments of death. That strikes me as being a very strong position.
      I venture to suggest to the House that, while it may be very necessary for those who think in a, certain way to provide these instruments of destruction, the first line of defence is the provision of strong and healthy men and women. I believe that unless the Government are prepared to take steps to provide such conditions in this country as will give us an A.1 population, all this expenditure upon armaments will very largely be wasteful and extravagant.
      Sir PATRICK HANNON: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that we are spending on the social services of this country in the creation of the type of population that he has in mind, more money than any other community under the sun?
      Mr. STEPHEN: I do not think the interruption of the hon. Member is very relevant to the argument I have been putting forward. I think that it might be shown that over the years since the close of the last War this country has spent a greater total sum on armaments than any other country. I would be quite willing to give way to any hon. Member who wants to tell me about the other countries. I am told that Russia spends much more, and I am very doubtful about the figures of the hon. Liberal Member behind me. I think that he is far too liberal in his estimate of the expenditure of Russia on her armaments. But it remains a fact that your human material is your first line of defence, and if your human material is not Al material, you are going to find yourselves in difficult circumstances. That is one point which I want to put before the Committee in connection with this matter.
      Another point which interests me in connection with these Debates is that in the House of Commons we have got hon. and gallant Admirals, Commanders, Colonels, Majors and Captains, and I have never noticed in the list any reference to private soldiers. If there are privates in this House I am not aware of it.
      Sir P. HANNON: We are all privates.
      Mr. STEPHEN: That may be a very noble sentiment, coming from the hon.

      185
      Member. I wonder why it is that petty officers and ordinary seamen in the Navy do not seem to have the same opportunity of coming into this House as the Admirals and the Commanders. I would like the Noble Lord when he replies to this Debate to tell me what is the exact position of the officers of the Navy who are also Members of Parliament and whether the lower deck in the Navy has the same privilege as those hon. Gentlemen who have come into this House from the Navy. I would like to point this out. It is a very interesting thing to me that of all the speeches that have been made in this Debate it was a civilian Member, an ex-military officer who was evidently regarded by most hon. Members of this House as the individual who had the most important contribution to make with regard to the Navy Estimates. The right hon. Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) seemed to be the one to whom Members looked for very wise words to-day in the difficult circumstances in which the country finds itself at the present time. I would like the Noble Lord to consider whether it would not be possible to make it more easy for ordinary seamen and petty officers to have the opportunity of coming into Parliament, and of taking part in these Debates in connection with national defence.
      On the Army Estimates, I raised the question of Army officers being entitled to become candidates for county councils. [HON. MEMBERS: "Retired officers."] According to what was said in a previous Debate it appeared that they were active officers. I know it is said that these people have retired from the service. I do not know very much about the conditions which apply to them but I notice that many of them continue to carry their naval and military titles when they enter the House of Commons. If they have retired, I do not see why they should continue to bear these naval and military titles. [An HON. MEMBER: "Or clerical titles"?] It does not apply to me. As a practising barrister, I would say that it does not help business to use these titles. It suggests to solicitors and clients that one is not in active practice and does not help the coming of briefs.
      Sir RONALD ROSS: Will the hon. Member take my assurance that it is just the same with the title of "major"?
      Mr. STEPHEN: I am very glad to find that there is one sensible ex-officer in the House. Another suggestion which I make to the Noble Lord is that something should be done to enable the ordinary seamen and the men who work in the engine-room to get into communication with trade union officials so that they could join their appropriate trade unions. I raised this question last week and the Secretary of State for War told me that he did not think it would be desirable to do so. I would remind the Committee that in the Unemployment Act certain privileges are given to unemployed people who are members of their appropriate trade unions. I think that men in the Services ought to have their rights under that Act secured and those rights can only be secured for them if they are members of their trade unions. There ought to be far better opportunities than exist now for petty officers and seamen and the people in the engine-room to get into the unions. There ought also to be on every ship a council of the workpeople employed on that ship.
      I would ask the Noble Lord to consider taking steps for setting up in every ship a sailors' council. Some hon. Members say "Soviet." Why they should desire to use a Russian word rather than an English word I do not know. If hon. Members knew the history of their own country they would know that such councils go far back in the history of the country. I am seriously putting forward to the Noble Lord a proposition that he should consider the institution of sailors' councils in every one of His Majesty's ships. The duties that would belong to these councils would be very various. They would be an appropriate instrument by which the people in the ship, who have a very considerable responsibility in connection with the successful running of the ship, would have an opportunity of putting their grievances before the officers in command of the ship. A great deal might be done in this way. The councils would have the opportunity of making representations with regard to the food supplied and with regard to the general conditions of the sailors in the ship. I believe that the institution of sailors' councils in every one of the ships in the Navy would mean a great step forward in making the Navy really effective as an instrument for the protection

      187
      of the people of this country. Hon. Members will note that I say "for the protection of the people of this country." It is quite true, and I do not want to hide the fact, that it may not be so efficient in the protection of private property, in the protection of the present economic structure, but I am quite confident that sailors' councils if they were set up in each of the ships would help to make those ships much more effective for the defence of the people. The people are being called upon to provide this great expenditure, and presumably it is for the protection of the great masses in the country and not for the protection of private property.
      Major PROCTER: May I ask if these councils before they could fire a shot would have to pass a resolution?
      Mr. STEPHEN: It would appear that there will have to be a Resolution passed in this House before the money can be provided for firing the shots. That is what we are busy with to-night. I do not know why the hon. and gallant Member should get so alarmed about the passing of a Resolution in a ship. It would be very often for the advantage of all concerned. Perhaps there would not be so many mistakes. Having listened to so many discussions in this House I should have more confidence if the lower deck had more say than they have at present and that would be the case if these councils were established. I am putting this proposition forward hoping that the Noble Lord will consider it and that the sailors in the Navy will take it up and will press for it as their right. If they had these councils, they could send their grievances to the officer of a ship, and if satisfaction was not obtained, to the Admiralty, and, if necessary, from the Admiralty to the Floor of the House. It is by the creation of such machinery that we shall be able to get the armed forces of this country into position which will enable them to become a real protection for the people and not merely an instrument for the protection of British capitalism.
      12.7 a.m.
      Mr. WATSON: I cannot allow the Debate to close without trying to elicit some information as to what the Government intend to do with Rosyth Dockyard. I do not see in the Estimates any proposal
      188
      that additional men will be employed at that dockyard. In the recent Debate on defence attention was drawn to the fact that the southern dockyards are vulnerable to attack and that few of them are safe from either sea or air attacks. It was pointed out that it was necessary to consider the establishment of dockyards in some other parts of the country where they would be safer. I hope that the Minister of Defence, whom I am pleased to see present, will give this matter some attention. These estimates show a substantial increase and the taxpayers will insist upon economies being effected as much as possible. If we are to be called upon to spend an additional £10,000,000 a year on the Navy, and if more is to be asked for the defence programme, the taxpayer may well begin to wonder when it will cease. If there is to he any question of new dockyards, I hope that Rosyth, which was reduced to a care and maintenance basis in 1925, will have first consideration. In a few weeks or months it could be put into use and it would be the most secure dockyard we could have, safe from attack from air and sea. I hope that Rosyth dockyard will receive consideration from the Admiralty in connection with any extension of the Navy.
      The Minister of Defence should also take note of the fact that before long he may have to consider establishing munition factories in various parts of the country. I suggest that he should find out from the Admiralty or his colleagues in the Government whether it is intended to use Rosyth again as a dockyard, because there are buildings there which could be, and ought to be, used for national purposes, and that before there is any question of erecting new factories in some other part of the country the fullest use should be made of the buildings already in the possession of the Government. I hope that in a few years from now we shall not have to complain of the waste of having built new factories and erected a lot of unnecessary plant. I feel that I should not have done my duty to my constituency if I had not drawn the attention of the representatives of the Admiralty, who have the first responsibility—the Minister of Defence may come into it later—for the condition in which Rosyth Dockyard is being kept.
      I hope other Members with Government establishments in their con-

      189
      stituencies will take note of the fact that since 1925 there has been a considerable number of unemployed in the Rosyth area. We have never got rid of the unemployment, problem there since the dockyard was reduced to a care and maintenance basis, and evidently we are to be perpetually burdened with the unemployment created by the reduction of the dockyard to that status. The Admiralty have a responsibility in the matter, and I hope the matter will receive careful consideration from them. I could have said much more, only the hour is late, but I hope I have said enough to convince the representatives of the Admiralty that at Rosyth there is a dockyard ready to be used almost at any time, and that if the question of safer dockyards is brought up it will have their first consideration.
      12.13 a.m.
      Lord STANLEY: I am sure that at this late hour the Committee will not wish me to deal with those speeches or parts of speeches which might more properly have been made earlier in the Debate or during the two days' Debate on Defence. I will confine myself therefore to the particular questions which have been addressed to me since we have been in Committee. I hope that I misunderstood the hon. Member for North Camberwell (Mr. Ammon) when I gathered that he was suggesting that we were hiding behind the naval members of the Board. It is perfectly ridiculous to take that view. The only point I wanted to make was that those members of the Board had not spent the whole of their service in battleships, but had a great deal of experience of all branches of the Service, and that therefore their advice would be more varied and valuable than that given by people who had served all their time in one class of ship.
      As to the first question put to me earlier in the day by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander), I know that he put a scheme of that kind into operation, but he got the benefit of it and we did not. With smaller programmes and a diminishing Vote, there is always a certain number of supernumeraries which can be used for bridging the gap for any essential service. When you have a Vote A which is right down to rock-bottom, on a slightly increased programme, you have great difficulty
      190
      in finding the necessary number of men.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: It is a question of economical management. The Admiralty would have kept the supernumeraries then, if we had not insisted upon their being cleared out.
      Lord STANLEY: It is to that action that we owe the extreme difficulties of the present time. The other scheme the right hon. Gentleman had put into operation was for decreased complements as the result of decreasing activities which is found to be unworkable. Replying to the hon. Member for North Camberwell the "Warspite" is the only ship among those he mentioned to receive this particularly expensive treatment and that is only because she will have to continue in service for so long before the time comes when she can be replaced. The crews for aircraft carried in battleships and new construction are borne on this Vote although the pay of these men is found under Vote 4. The right hon. Gentleman asked the difference of price per ton for various classes of shipbuilding. The specific question was, why was there such a large difference between the "Arethusa" of 5,000 tons and one of the 7,000-ton "Leander" class? I can give the hon. Member figures which, although approximate, are sufficiently accurate to answer his question. The "Arethusa," of 5,200 tons, built in a Royal Dockyard, cost £250 per ton. The "Amphion," of 7,000 tons, cost £214 per ton. The "Newcastle," of 9,000 tons, cost £207 per ton. It looks very much as though the rate per ton depends upon the tonnage of the ships and that it comes down in a fairly steep ratio. I shall be interested myself in looking into the details, and if I find there is any other reason I shall be very glad to let the hon. Gentleman know.
      The hon. Member for Broxtowe (Mr. Cocks), as usual, has raised the question of promotion from the lower deck, in which subject he takes a great deal of interest. The Admiralty very much regret the falling off in the numbers, and it is certainly not our wish that this scheme should come to an end. We want to do everything we can to encourage it. Fully qualified and recommended men are not coming forward; all those who have done so are selected for promotion. What the reasons are I really cannot tell. I will go into the matter to see whether any-

      191
      thing that we can do will encourage them. The Admiralty are most anxious to see this scheme made a complete success. I hope that in years to come we shall see these officers reaching the higher ranks. The other points which have been raised are mostly points of detail, and I am sure that hon. Members will not object if I answer them by letter.
      To all those who have spoken about the dockyards I would say that we not only realise their responsibilities to their constituents, but also the Admiralty's responsibilities towards the dockyards. The question of the number of established men is now being gone into by my hon. Friend the Civil Lord. I would, in conclusion, say a word about one particular dockyard, namely, Rosyth. I am sure hon. Members have not expected that I should be in a position to make any statement about Rosyth to-night, but obviously we have always in view the possiblity of using Rosyth in the future,
      and, if the occasion should arise, obviously the claims of Rosyth will be among the first to be considered. Indeed, in view of the fact that the Civil Lord is a Scottish Member, it would not be surprising if they were considered slightly out of their order.
      HON. MEMBERS: Oh!
      Mr. STEPHEN: Am I to understand that the Parliamentary Secretary will consult the First Lord on the matter of the constitution of sailors' councils such as I have suggested?
      Lord STANLEY: I do not think we need go to Russia to learn how to treat the men of the lower deck.
      Question put, "That 95,095 Officers, Seamen, Boys and Royal Marines be employed for the said Service."
      The Committee divided: Ayes, 75; Noes, 191.

      Division No. 101.]

      AYES.

      [12.24 a.m.

      Adams, D. M. (Poplar, S.)

      Hall, J. H. (Whitechapel)

      Pethick-Lawrence, F. W.

      Adamson, W. M.

      Hardie, G. D.

      Potts, J.

      Alexander, Rt. Hon. A. V. (H'lsbr.)

      Henderson, A. (Klngswlntord)

      Pritt, D. N.

      Ammon, C. G.

      Hollins, A.

      Ritson, J.

      Anderson, F. (Whitehaven)

      Hopkin, D.

      Robinson, W. A. (St. Helens)

      Banfield, J. W.

      Jagger, J.

      Rowson, G.

      Barnes, A. J.

      Jenkins, Sir W. (Neath)

      Sexton, T. M.

      Barr, J.

      John, W.

      Silverman, S. S.

      Benson, G.

      Johnston, Rt. Hon. T.

      Simpson, F. B.

      Bevan, A.

      Kelly, W. T.

      Smith, Ben (Rotherhithe)

      Broad, F. A.

      Kirby, B. V.

      Smith, E. (Stoke)

      Burke, W. A.

      Lawson, J. J.

      Smith, T. (Normanton)

      Cocks, F. S.

      Leonard, W.

      Scrensen, R. W.

      Daggar, G.

      Logan, D. G.

      Stephen, C.

      Day, H.

      Macdonald, G. (Ince)

      Stewart. W. J. (H'ght'n-le-Sp'ng)

      Dunn, E. (Rother Valley)

      McEntee, V. La T.

      Strauss, G. R. (Lambeth, N.)

      Ede, J. C.

      McGhee, H. G.

      Taylor, R. J. (Morpeth)

      Edwards, A. (Middlesbrough E.)

      McGovern, J.

      Tinker, J. J.

      Edwards, Sir C. (Bedwellty)

      MacLaren, A.

      Watson, W. McL.

      Fletcher, Lt.-Comdr. R. T. H.

      Maclean, N.

      Williams, T. (Don Valley)

      Frankel, D.

      Marklew, E.

      Wilson. C. H. (Attercliffe)

      Gardner, B. W.

      Marshall, F.

      Woods, G. S. (Finsbury)

      Garro-Jones, G. M.

      Maxton, J.

      Young, Sir R. (Newton)

      Green, W. H. (Deptford)

      Milner, Major J.

      Greenwood, Rt. Hon. A.

      Oliver, G. H.

      TELLERS FOR THE AYES.—

      Hall, G. H. (Aberdare)

      Paling, W.

      Mr. Whiteley and Mr. Mathers.

      NOES.

      Acland-Troyte, Lt.-Col. G. J.

      Bowyer, Capt. Sir G. E. W.

      Critchley, A.

      Agnew, Lieut.-Comdr. P. G.

      Briscoe, Capt. R. G.

      Croft, Brig.-Gen. Sir H. Page

      Allen, U.-Col. Sir W. J. (Armagh)

      Brown, Col. D. C. (Hexham)

      Crookshank, Capt. H. F. C.

      Anderson Sir A. Garrett (C. of Ldn.)

      Bull, B. B.

      Croom-Johnson, R. P.

      Anstruther-Gray, W. J.

      Burghley, Lord

      Cross, R. H.

      Apsley, Lord

      Cartland, J. R. H.

      Davidson, Rt. Hon. Sir J. C. C.

      Aske, Sir R. W.

      Carver, Major W. H.

      Davies, C. (Montgomery)

      Assheton, R.

      Cary, R. A.

      Davies, Major G. F. (Yeovil)

      Astor, Visc'tess (Plymouth, Sutton)

      Castlereagh, Viscount

      De Chair, S. S.

      Baldwin-Webb, Col. J.

      Cazalet, Thelma (Islington, E.)

      Dixon, Capt. Rt. Hon. H.

      Balfour, Capt. H. H. (Isle of Thanet)

      Cazalet, Capt. V. A. (Chippenham)

      Dodd, J. S.

      Barclay-Harvey, C. M.

      Channon, H.

      Drewe, C.

      Baxter, A. Beverley

      Coltox, Major W. p.

      Duckworth, G. A. V. (Salop)

      Beaumont, Hon. R. E. B. (Portsm'h)

      Colville, Lt.-Col. D. J.

      Duckworth, W. R. (Moss Side)

      Blinded, Sir J.

      Cooke, J. D. (Hammersmith, S.)

      Dugdale, Major T. L.

      Bottom, A. C.

      Cooper, Rt. Hn. T. M. (E'nburgh.W.)

      Duggan, H. J.

      Bower, Comdr. R. T.

      Courtauld, Major J. S.

      Duncan, J. A. L.

      Dunne, P. R. R.

      Leckie, J. A.

      Reid, W. Allan (Derby)

      Eastwood, J. F.

      Lennox-Boyd, A. T. L.

      Rickards, G. W. (Skipton)

      Eckersley, P. T.

      Levy, T.

      Roberts, W. (Cumberland, N.)

      Emery, J. F.

      Liddall, W. S.

      Ropner, Colonel L.

      Emrys-Evans, P. V.

      Lindsay, K. M.

      Ross, Major Sir R. D. (L'derry)

      Errington, E.

      Liwellin, Lieut.-Col. J. J.

      Ross Taylor, W. (Woodbridge)

      Erskine Hill, A. G.

      Lloyd, G. W.

      Rothschild, J. A. de

      Evans, D. O. (Cardigan)

      Loftus, P. C.

      Russell, S. H. M. (Darwen)

      Everard, W. L.

      Mabane, W. (Huddersfield)

      Salmon, Sir I.

      Fleming, E. L.

      McCorquodale, M. S.

      Sandys, E. D.

      Foot, D. M.

      MacDonald, Sir Murdoch (Inverness)

      Scott, Lord William

      Fox, Sir G. W. G.

      Macdonald, Capt. P. (Isle of Wight)

      Seely, Sir H. M.

      Fraser, Capt. Sir I.

      McKle, J. H.

      Shaw, Major P. S. (Wavertree)

      Fremantle, Sir F. E.

      Maclay, Hon. J. P.

      Shute, Colonel Sir J. J.

      Furness, S. N.

      Maklns, Brig.-Gen. E.

      Simon, Rt. Hon. Sir J. A.

      Fyfe, D. P. M.

      Margesson, Capt. Rt. Hon. H. D. R.

      Sinclair, Rt. Hon. Sir A. (C'thn's)

      George, Major G. Lloyd (Pembroke)

      Markham, S. F.

      Smith, Sir R. W. (Aberdeen)

      Goodman, Col. A. W.

      Maxwell, S. A.

      Somervell, Sir D. B. (Crewe)

      Graham, Captain A. C. (Wirral)

      Mayhew, Lt.-Col. J.

      Southby, Comdr. A. R. J.

      Greene, W. p. C. (Worcester)

      Mellor, Sir J. S. P. (Tamworth)

      Spens, W. P.

      Gretton, Col. Rt. Hon. J.

      Mills, Major J. D. (New Forest)

      Stanley, Rt. Hon. Lord (Fylde)

      Gridley, Sir A. B.

      Morrison, G. A. (Scottish Univ's.)

      Strauss, H. G. (Norwich)

      Griffith, F. Kingsley (M'ddl'sbro, W.)

      Morrison, W. S. (Cirencester)

      Strickland, Captain W. F.

      Gritten, W. G. Howard

      Mulrhead, Lt.-Col. A. J.

      Stuart, Hon. J. (Moray and Nairn)

      Guest, Maj. Hon. O.(C'mb'rw'll, N.W.)

      Munro, P.

      Sutcliffe, H.

      Gunston, Capt. D. W.

      Nail, Sir J.

      Taylor, Vice-Adm. E. A. (Padd., S.)

      Hanbury, Sir C.

      Nicolson, Hon. H. G.

      Thomas, Rt. Hon. J. H. (Derby)

      Hannah, I. C.

      Ormsby-Gore, Rt. Hon. W. G.

      Thomas, J. P. L. (Hereford)

      Hannon, Sir p. J. H.

      Orr-Ewing, I. L.

      Thomson, Sir J. D. W.

      Harbord, A.

      Palmer, G. E. H.

      Tree, A. R. L. F.

      Harris, Sir P. A.

      Patrick, C. M.

      Tryon, Major Rt. Hon. G. C.

      Haslam, Sir J. (Bolton)

      Peat, C. U.

      Tufnell, Lieut.-Com. R. L.

      Hellgers, Captain F. F. A.

      Penny, Sir G.

      Turton, R. H.

      Hepburn, P. G. T. Buchan-

      Percy, Rt. Hon. Lord E.

      Wakefield, W. W.

      Herbert, Major J. A. (Monmouth)

      Peters, Dr. S. J.

      Walker-Smith, Sir J.

      Holdsworth, H.

      Petherick, M.

      Ward, Lieut.-Col. Sir A. L. (Hull)

      Holmes, J. S.

      Plckthorn, K. W. M.

      Ward, Irene (Wallsend)

      Hulbert, N. J.

      Plugge, L. F.

      Warrender, Sir V.

      Hunter, T.

      Ponsonby, Col. C. E.

      Waterhouse, Captain C.

      Inskip, Rt. Hon. Sir T. W. H.

      Porritt, R. W.

      White, H. Graham

      Jones, H. Haydn (Merioneth)

      Procter, Major H. A.

      Williams, H. G. (Croydon, S.)

      Kerr, Colonel C. I. (Montrose)

      Radford, E. A.

      Winterton, Rt. Hon. Earl

      Kerr, J. Graham (Scottish Univs.)

      Ramsbotham, H.

      Wise, A. R.

      Keyes, Admiral of the Fleet Sir R.

      Rankin, R.

      Wragg, H.

      Kimball, L.

      Rathbone, J. R. (Bodmln)

      Lamb, Sir J. Q.

      Rayner, Major R. H.

      TELLERS FOR THE NOES.—

      Latham, Sir P.

      Reed, A. C. (Exeter)

      Dr. Morris-Jones and Captain

      Law, R. K. (Hull, S.W.)

      Reid, Sir D. D. (Down)

      Arthur Hope.

      First Six Resolutions agreed to.

      WAGES, ETC., OF OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE ROYAL NAVY AND ROYAL MARINES, AND CIVILIANS EMPLOYED ON FLEET SERVICES.
      Motion made, and Question proposed,
      "That a sum, not exceeding £13,572,700, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Expense of Wages, etc., of Officers and Men of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, and Civilians employed on Fleet Services, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March. 1937."
      12.31 a.m.
      Mr. ALEXANDER: As the hour is so late and we still have some questions to raise on the remaining Votes, we do not propose to divide against this Vote. nor against any of the others that the Government wish to put through to-night, but in adopting this course we desire to give notice that we want to raise certain specific questions on these Votes on the
      194
      Report stage, though we let them go through to-night.

      WORKS, BUILDINGS, AND REPAIRS AT HOME AND ABROAD.
      Resolved,
      "That a sum, not exceeding £2,450,500, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Expense of Works, Buildings and Repairs at Homo and Abroad, including the cost of Superintendence, Purchase of Sites, Grants and other Charges connected therewith, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1937."

      VICTUALLING AND CLOTHING FOR THE NAVY.
      Resolved,
      "That a sum, not exceeding £3,400,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Expense of Victualling and Clothing for the Navy, including the cost of Victualling Establishments at Homo and Abroad, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1937."

      NON-EFFECTIVE SERVICES (NAVAL AND MARINE)—OFFICERS.
      Resolved,
      "That a sum, not exceeding £3,219,000, he granted to His Majesty, to defray the Expense of Non-Effective Services (Naval and Marine)—Officers, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1937."

      NON-EFFECTIVE SERVICES (NAVAL AND MARINE)—MEN.
      Resolved,
      "That a sum, not exceeding £5,276,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Expense of Non-Effective Services (Naval and Marine)—Men, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of Mardi, 1937."

      CIVIL SUPERANNUATION, ALLOWANCES AND GRATUITIES.
      Resolved,
      "That a sum, not exceeding £1,229,700, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Expense of Civil Superannuation and other Non-effective Annual Allowances, Additional Allowances and Gratuities, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1937."
      Resolutions to be reported To-morrow; Committee to sit again To-morrow.

SUPPLY [27TH FEBRUARY].
Resolutions reported:
CIVIL ESTIMATES AND ESTIMATES FOR REVENUE DEPARTMENTS, SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES, 1935.

  CLASS VII.
  1. "That a. Supplementary sum, not exceeding £27,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Commissioners of His Majesty's Works and Public Buildings."
  2. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £40,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for Expenditure in respect of sundry Public Buildings in Great Britain, not provided for on other Votes, including Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments, Brompton Cemetery, and certain Housing Estates."

  CLASS III.
  3. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £21,500, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payent during the year ending
  196
  on the 31st day of March, 1936, for Grants in respect of the expenses of the Managers of Approved Schools in England and Wales; the expenses of Local Authorities in respect of children and young persons committed to their care; and the expenses of the Councils of Counties and County Boroughs in respect of Remand Homes."

  CLASS II.
  4. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £131,360, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for sundry Colonial and Middle Eastern Services under His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, including certain Non-effective Services and Grants in Aid."
  CLASS V.
  5. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £300,000 be granted to His Majesty. to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Ministry of Labour, including sums payable by the Exchequer to the Unemployment Fund, Grants to Local Authorities, Associations and other bodies under the Unemployment Insurance, Labour Exchanges and other Acts; Grant in Aid of the National Council of Social Service; Expenses of Training, Transfer and Resettlement; Contribution towards the Expenses of the International Labour Organisation (League of Nations); Expenses of the Industrial Court; and sundry services."
  REVENUE DEPARTMENTS.
  6. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £2,150,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Post Office, including Telegraphs and Telephones."

  CLASS I.
  7. "That a sum, not exceeding £50,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, to meet such of the charges for the withdrawal of the remaining half of the abatements of Ministerial Salaries and Civil Service Remuneration as have not been otherwise provided."
  8. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £88,180, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for certain Miscellaneous Expenses, including certain Grants in Aid, and Supplement to certain Statutory Salaries."
  9. "That a sum, not exceeding £25,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1,936, for the Expenses of the Funeral of His late Majesty King George V."

  CLASS VI.
  10. "That a sum, not exceeding £10, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Anglo-Spanish and Anglo-Roumanian Clearing Offices under the Debts Clearing Offices and Import Restrictions Act, 1934."
  11. "That a Suplementary sum, not exceeding £5,0000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade, and Subordinate Departments, including certain services arising out of the War."
  12. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £101,500, be granted to His Majesty to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, including grants and grants in aid in respect of agricultural education and research, eradication of diseases of animals, and fishery research; and grants, grants in aid, loans, and expenses in respect of improvement of breeding, &c., of live stock, land settlement, improvement of cultivation, drainage, &c., regulation of agricultural wages, agricultural credits, and marketing, fishery development; and sundry other services."

  CIVIN (EXCESS), 1934.
  13. "That a sum, not exceeding £1,249 17s. 8d., be granted to His Majesty, to make good an Excess on the Grant for Public Buildings Overseas for the year ended the 31st day of March, 1935:—

  Class VII
  Amount to be Voted.

  £

  s.

  d.

  Vote 8. Public Buildings Overseas

  1,249

  17

  8 "

  Ordered,
  "That Consideration of the remaining Resolutions be now adjourned."—[Captain Margesson.]
  Seventh and subsequent Resolutions to be considered To-morrow.
  The remaining Orders were read, and postponed.
  It being after Half-past Eleven of the Clock, upon Monday evening, Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
  Adjourned at Twenty Minutes before One o'Clock.

ROYAL NAVY.
  PERSONNEL AND INDUSTRIAL STAFF.
  PERSONNEL AND INDUSTRIAL STAFF.
  COMMISSIONED OFFICERS (LOMTER DECK PROMOTIONS).
  COMMISSIONED OFFICERS (LOMTER DECK PROMOTIONS).
  SAILORS IN BARRACKS (CIVILIAN CLOTHES).
  SAILORS IN BARRACKS (CIVILIAN CLOTHES).
  CONTRACTS (FAIR WAGES CLAUSE).
  CONTRACTS (FAIR WAGES CLAUSE).
  MALNUTRITION.
  MALNUTRITION.
UNEMPLOYMENT.
  AGRICULTURAL WORKERS.
  AGRICULTURAL WORKERS.
  INSURANCE (BLACK-COATED WORKERS).
  INSURANCE (BLACK-COATED WORKERS).
  WAR MUNITIONS (EXPORT).
  WAR MUNITIONS (EXPORT).
  HYDROCARBON OIL DUTY.
  HYDROCARBON OIL DUTY.
AGRICULTURE.
  TITHE RENTCHARGE.
  TITHE RENTCHARGE.
  HORSES AND MECHANISATION.
  HORSES AND MECHANISATION.
  HERRING INDUSTRY BOARD.
  HERRING INDUSTRY BOARD.
  WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION.
  WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION.
TRANSPORT.
  OMNIBUS FARES, LONDON.
  OMNIBUS FARES, LONDON.
  CANAL SYSIEM.
  CANAL SYSIEM.
  ELECTRICITY GRID, LEITH HILL.
  ELECTRICITY GRID, LEITH HILL.
  CONTRACTS (FAIR WAGES CLAUSE).
  CONTRACTS (FAIR WAGES CLAUSE).
ROYAL PARKS.
  ST. JOHN'S LODGE, REGENT'S PARK.
  ST. JOHN'S LODGE, REGENT'S PARK.
  QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN, REGENT'S PARK.
  QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN, REGENT'S PARK.
  SOMERSET HOUSE.
  SOMERSET HOUSE.
  POST OFFICE (POSTAL ORDERS).
  POST OFFICE (POSTAL ORDERS).