§ Sir R. GOWERasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, having regard to the circumstances that three of the vessels originally included in the 1929 naval programme have been dropped out, Great Britain will have, by the end of 1933, submarines of the tonnage displacement allowed by the Pact of London; and whether he proposes to consider the desirability of increasing the country's immediate shipbuilding programme?
Mr. ALEXANDERIt is not considered by the Admiralty that an annual programme in excess of three submarines per annum is required in view of the provision in the Treaty of London that the completed tonnage in submarines shall not exceed 52,700 tons for the British Commonwealth of Nations on 31st December, 1936.