§ Sir ROBERT THOMASasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that the training ship "Clio," moored in the Menai Straits, requires to have her moorings renewed from time to time at great expense, and that these moorings must be renewed at the present time for the safety of the ship, at a cost estimated at about 2558W £800; that the committee of management cannot undertake this heavy outlay unless the Home Office will give an undertaking that the ship shall be continued to be used as an industrial school for the next eight or ten years; and whether he will give such an undertaking?
§ Mr. SHORTTI regret I cannot give such an undertaking. Experience has shown that there are many difficulties in conducting a school for boys in a wooden ship such as the "Clio," and the Departmental Committee of 1913 on Reformatory and Industrial Schools, which carefully considered the question, recommended that as opportunities occur the ship schools should be abandoned and nautical schools on land substituted, as has already been done in several cases.