§ Major KELLEYasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he can make a statement on the placing of contraets for the new battleships; and whether, in placing contracts or sub-contracts for machinery and equipment, the Admiralty will remember the capacity and needs of inland industrial areas?
§ Mr. AMERYIn view of the terms of the Prime Minister's reply of yesterday to the Noble and gallant Member for South Battersea (Viscount Curzon), it would be premature for me to make any statement on the placing of the contracts beyond what I have already said in 1535W answer to the hon. Members for Ecciesall (Sir S. Roberts) and Devonport (Sir C. Kinloch-Cooke) on the 27th November. As regards the second part of the question, the responsibility for sub-contracts rests with the main contractors, but it is the policy of the Admiralty to ask them to distribute the work widely with a view to spreading employment over the country as evenly as possible.