Mr. PETOasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport whether he has received a letter from the Mid-Scotland Ship Canal National Association, dated the 13th March, setting out that evidence and estimates were submitted to the Canal Commissioners in 1909 of the cost of construction of the Mid-Scotland Ship Canal, and that in 1913 a detailed description was lodged with His Majesty's Treasury; whether he is aware that the scheme was considered during the War by the Admiralty; that at the request of the Admiralty in 1916 Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company prepared complete plans and estimates for the canal, and that at the request of the Board of Trade in 1919 a reasoned estimate of the traffic likely to use the direct route was submitted; and whether his Department has considered the evidence put before other Departments 309W during the last 10 years, and is now in a position to undertake any more detailed survey required and to decide whether credit facilities should be given to enable the canal to be constructed forthwith?
§ Colonel ASHLEYThe answer to the first part is in the affirmative. Various schemes for cutting a canal between the Forth and the Clyde were considered by the Royal Commission on Canals and Inland Navigations and by the Admiralty, and in 1918 the Ministry of Reconstruction, in conjunction with the other Departments concerned, examined the proposals and came to the conclusion that the estimates of the cost of constructing such a canal, prepared by Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company and others, could not be satisfactorily tested until a more detailed geological survey of the route had been carried out. As stated in the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend on the 12th March on this subject, it is for the advocates of the canal to make any necessary survey of this nature. I understand that the Board of Trade were not able to accept the estimates of traffic submitted by the Association and were not satisfied that there was any prospect of receipts from the use of the canal being sufficient to cover the working expenses and the loan charges likely to be incurred on its construction. I do not consider that the evidence so far put forward by the advocates of the canal is such as would justify the Government in taking any action.