Mr. ACLANDasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he will state the number of ships existing and in course of construction which are or will be, approximately, as strong as, or stronger than, His Majesty's Ship "Queen Elizabeth"; to which countries these ships belong; and, in the case of those in course of construction, the approximate date at which they will be completed?
Lord STANLEYIt is difficult to make a comparison between the relative strength of capital ships with different combinations of tonnage, speed, armour and gun power, and especially so now that extensive modernisation programmes aye being carried out by certain foreign powers, of which details are not published. Such details as can be made public are contained in Command Paper 5038, entitled "Fleets". The current edition was published in December, 1935.