§ Mr. MACKINDERasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he will state the date Sir William Rowan Thomson resigned his position as director of auxiliary ships' engines in the Department of General Collard; and what were his reasons for resigning?
§ Dr. MACNAMARACertain changes were decided upon as necessary in order to promote efficiency in the production of merchant ships, and an Assistant Deputy-Controller of Auxiliary Shipbuilding was appointed with special responsibility for progress of complete ships, both hulls and engines, in private shipyards. Sir W. Rowan Thomson, the director of auxiliary ships' engines, was of opinion that marine engineering should be dealt with independently from the hulls, and that the changes might prejudice the marine engineering side of the work. He resigned his position on the 15th February, and his resignation was accepted with regret. It need scarcely be said that the decision to appoint an assistant to the Deputy-Controller, with responsibility for progress of both hulls and engines, is due to a desire to avoid any hiatus between the production of hulls and engines respectively, and involves no lack of recognition of the relative importance of marine engineering compared with shipbuilding.