§ Mr. Burdenasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the result of the inquiries of the United States Maritime Administration regarding the cargo of s.s. "Richard Montgomery" lying sunk in the Medway since the war.
§ Mr. FoleyThe report received from the United States Department of the Army is still under consideration. A statement on it will be made in due course.
§ Mr. Burdenasked the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of damage that would result from the inadvertent detoration of the cargo of the s.s. "Richard Montgomery".
§ Mr. FoleyThere have been two previous assessments of risk: the latter specifically concluded that the spontaneous and complete detonation of the ammunition remaining in the wreck is improbable. In, however, the unlikely event of such a detonation occurring there would over a radius of two miles be structural damage including some cracking of secure walls and some collapse of insecure ones. Outside this radius minor damage could occur.