§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister for Overseas Development what financial aid has been given in the last five years towards the costs of carrying out hydro-graphic surveys in overseas areas.
§ Mr. PrenticeSo far as I have been able to determine in the time available, the only work by the Hydrographer of the Navy financed from the aid programme during the last five years was a survey of Male Harbour in the Maldives in 1972 at a cost of £35,000. Any inshore surveys which civilian contractors may have carried out will have been few in number and small in extent.
§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister for Overseas Development what requests have been received for assistance in carrying out hydrographic surveys in the Red Sea, Gulf of Suez and the north and south approaches to the Suez Canal.
§ Mr. PrenticeMy Ministry has received no specific requests for assistance in carrying out hydrographic surveys in these waters. Discussions on the need for such surveys were held in March between officials of several Departments and the Egyptian Minister of Marine Transport. I cannot at this stage say what the outcome of those discussions is likely to be.
§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister for Overseas Development what provision is being made for aid to provide hydro-graphic surveying of main shipping routes and likely exclusive economic zones in the waters of dependent territories.
604W
§ Mr. PrenticeI have made no specific allocations for present or future work of this kind. The uses to which the aid programme funds are put are determined by the requests received from overseas Governments and the extent of the common ground betwen the latters' views and those of my Ministry on the sectors which should be given priority.
§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister for Overseas Development what notification has been received within the last five years for hydrographic surveys from the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, Fiji and Caribbean territories.
§ Mr. PrenticeSuch surveys were carried out around the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides and Fiji in 1972–75, the first two of which have requested further surveys.
One notification has been received from Trinidad, and various surveys in the Caribbean have been carried out by the Hydrographic Department as part of their own programme.
None of these surveys has been financed from the aid programme.