§ 11 and 12. Mr. Lewisasked the First Lord of the Admiralty (1) to what extent, in view of the development of the atom and hydrogen bombs and other forms of nuclear weapons, it is his policy to scrap battleships and stop the building of aircraft carriers and conventional cruisers with a view to concentrating on small vessels such as destroyers, frigates, minesweepers and submarines;
(2) if he will make a statement on the position of the Royal Navy in an atom and hydrogen bomb war; for what rôle battleships and aircraft carriers are now intended, in view of the development of nuclear weapons; and what proposals he intends to make to modernise the Royal Navy in the light of these new types of nuclear weapons.
§ Mr. J. P. L. ThomasI should prefer not to anticipate the presentation to Parliament of my statement accompanying the Navy Estimates, 1955–56, nor the speech I shall make in introducing those Estimates.