§ Captain Pluggeasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he can give the chief ports in this country used for the purposes of purely coastal trade and the numbers of vessels, respectively, using such ports in any given recent period?
§ Mr. CrossI am not quite clear what my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind, but Table 6 in the Annual Statement of the Navigation and Shipping of the United Kingdom for the year 1937 gives particulars of coastwise traffic at individual ports. If my hon. and gallant Friend should desire any further information, perhaps he will communicate with me.
§ Captain Pluggeasked the President of the Board of Trade how many ships are now engaged in the coastal trade of this country compared with the figures for each of the last three years; and whether there has been any increase in the number of foreign ships carrying on a coastal trade in this country?
§ Mr. CrossThe number of British vessels engaged in the coasting trade is ascertained only in connection with the census of seamen taken annually on the 15th June. On that date in 1937, the latest for which information is available, 904 steam, motor and sailing vessels 2897W registered in the United Kingdom were employed, as compared with 931 in 1936 and 913 in 1935. Corresponding particulars of foreign vessels are not available but, according to the navigation returns, which include the repeated voyages of the vessels concerned, foreign vessels represented 1.3 per cent. of the aggregate tonnage that arrived and departed with cargo coastwise at United Kingdom ports during the period January-November, 1938; this compares with 1.4 per cent. in each of the years 1937 and 1936.