HC Deb 13 April 1938 vol 334 cc1157-8W
Captain Plugge

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether, in connection with the extension of Portsmouth Dockyard, it is also proposed to extend the dockyard at Chatham?

Mr. Cooper

One dock at Chatham is to be enlarged, but no further extension at this port is at present contemplated.

Captain Plugge

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty what was the lowest figure to which the number of established employés in the Royal dockyards has fallen since 1910; and in what year this lowest level was reached?

Mr. Cooper

The number of established workpeople employed in His Majesty's dockyards at home remained for the first three years following 1910 at a level to which they have not since fallen. The lowest number of which there is a record since those years is about 7,900, which was reached in the early part of 1937.