§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAasked the First Lord of the Admiralty what is the estimated financial saving by the abandonment of two cruisers, two submarines, a netlayer, and two sloops of the 1929–30 Naval Programme, originally destined to 1919W be built in His Majesty's dockyards and now abandoned; and what was the estimated number of men to be employed on these ships in the financial year?
Mr. ALEXANDERThe total estimated direct financial saving on New Construction due to the abandonment of two cruisers, three submarines, four destroyers, two sloops, and the netlayer included in the Navy Estimates, 1929, New Programme, as originally laid before Parliament is £6,500,000. None of these cancelled ships had been ordered and no compensation is therefore payable in respect of them. Orders for the ships remaining in the programme are now proposed to be allocated as follows:
Cruiser—Devonport Dockyard. Two Destroyers—Portsmouth Dockyard. Four Sloops (of which two have already been ordered)—two Chatham, two Devonport. One Leader and two Destroyers—Contract.
A decision respecting the three submarines remaining in the Programme is held in abeyance pending the conclusions of the London Naval Conference. In regard to the last part of the question, the financial provision for the 1929 New Programme, and the estimated expenditure during the present financial year on the vessels as now ordered, are both so small that the effect of the change on employment of men is practically negligible.
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAasked the First Lord of the Admiralty what is the estimated financial saving by the abandonment of four destroyers, two sloops, one submarine of the 1929–30 Naval Programme originally destined to be built by private firms and now abandoned: whether any compensation is payable in respect of the abandonment of these ships; and, if so, the amount of money that is to be paid?