§ Sir C. COBBasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, in reference to the advice given by the Board of Admiralty to the Government that the naval needs of the country would be met by the provision of a minimum of 50 cruisers against their earlier considered opinion of 70, whether such advice was asked for on the basis of a permanent state of world peace or was the possibility of future war taken into consideration?
Mr. ALEXANDERIf the hon. Member will refer to what I said on this subject during the Debate on the 15th of this month in this House, repeating what I had already publicly stated on a previous occasion, he will see that this advice of the Board of Admiralty as to 50 cruisers meeting our needs was limited to the period up to 1936. During that period neither the present Government nor our predecessors in office have thought it necessary to maintain a Fleet based upon anticipation of a war on a major scale.