§ Captain BOWYERasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (1) the numbers of the Minesweepers' Cooperative Trawlers' Society's trawlers which are to be stationed at Aberdeen, Granton, Hull, Grimsby, Lowestoft, Swansea, Fleetwood, and other ports respectively; whether it is the fact that some ports are already congested to a very serious degree; and whether the addition of these vessels to the fleet will relieve this congestion;
(2) what arrangements are to be made for supplying the vessels of the Minesweepers' Co-operative Trawlers' Society with ice; and is the company to build its own ice factories at any, and, if so, at which ports?
§ Sir J. CRAIGThe Admiralty is not in a position to give the information asked for, as to the number of vessels which the Minesweepers' Co-operative Trawling Society will work from the794W ports mentioned and as to other arrangements. These are matters entirely within the discretion of the society, and any request for such information should be addressed to the secretary of the society at its registered offices.
§ Captain BOWYERasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty why the detailed prospectus of the Minesweepers' Co-operative Trawlers' Society was not published before 11th August, 1920?
§ Sir J. CRAIGThe Minesweepers' Cooperative Trawlers' Society was not registered until 13th August. The society issued its prospectus shortly after that date.
§ Captain BOWYERasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty whether any and, if so, how many of the 200 trawlers to be offered to the Minesweepers' Co-operative Trawling Society have been reconditioned in His Majesty's dockyards: what was the cost of reconditioning per vessel; whether tenders for reconditioning were asked for from private engineering shops; whether private engineering shops can, as a fact, carry out the work more cheaply than His Majesty's dockyards; whether, in the case of the Minesweepers' Co-operative Trawling Society, the cost of the reconditioning will fall upon the society or upon the Exchequer; and whether private persons have been allowed to purchase Admiralty trawlers reconditioned at the public expense?
§ Sir J. CRAIGWith regard to the first and second parts of the question, up to the present 101 of the trawlers allocated to the Minesweepers' Co-operative Trawling Society are being reconditioned in His Majesty's dockyards, in accordance with the scheme approved by the Government and announced by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty in the House of Commons on 27th October, 1919. The final cost of the work done on these vessels in the dockyards cannot yet be stated, very few actual costs being yet known, and the work being still in hand. With regard to the third and fourth parts of the question, orders have been placed with various private contractors for the reconditioning of 57 vessels. It is not possible to call for tenders beforehand for this class of work owing to the impossibility of estimating exactly the 795W extent of the work to be done on any particular vessel. It cannot be stated as a fact that private engineering shops can carry out the work more cheaply than His Majesty's dockyards. With regard to the fifth and last parts of the question, the cost of reconditioning will fall upon the Exchequer, but this has been borne in mind in fixing the prices at which the vessels are transferred to the society. No reconditioning has been undertaken in the case of Admiralty-owned trawlers sold to private purchasers.