Lord Stanley's Statement.

Part of Orders of the Day — Supply. – in the House of Commons at on 16 March 1936.

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Photo of Lieut-Commander Richard Tufnell Lieut-Commander Richard Tufnell , Cambridge

We ought to be grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Norfolk (Mr. De Chair) for having brought this Amendment before us. It has given the House an opportunity of debating the necessity for an adequate Fleet and has enabled us to hear the whale case for the battleship put forward most clearly. I think my Noble Friend has shown very lucidly the necessity of the battleship in the organisation of the Fleet and the desirability of allowing an inquiry into the whole question. He has shown that he has a free mind on the subject and I hope that when it comes to a question of replacing our battleships we shall have a full court of inquiry and that definite information will be given to the country as to the advantages of battleships. It is very necessary at this moment to emphasise the importance of an adequate Fleet because there are so many air enthusiasts at the present time who appear to be possessed of the one idea that the Fleet could be replaced by and its duties carried out by aircraft. I would remind them that the Air Force as well as the Army or Navy requires oil for its operations, and that it is only by an adequate Fleet that it is possible to ensure the supply of oil to this country. An Air Force can be as much paralysed by lack of oil as a battle fleet can be hampered in its operations by lack of an efficient Fleet Air Arm.

I was glad to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Elland (Mr. Levy) point out the great necessity of a strong and efficient Fleet Air Arm. The Air Arm is the eyes of the Fleet. It enables the Fleet to withstand enemy air attacks; it can carry out the necessary operations for "spotting" and it can assist in the job of dealing with both submarine and air attacks on merchant shipping. But aircraft are necessarily limited in their radius of action. The Fleet supplies patrols and escorts in rough weather, in tropical weather, in Arctic cold, in mist and darkness, whereas aircraft become useless in case of fog or mist, are unreliable in rough weather, and at present are unable to remain at sea for months on end, keeping in contact with convoys and so forth. There are 3,000 British merchant ships at sea at the same time. Of that number, 90 per cent. are out of sight of land and outside the range of fighting aircraft operating from land. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Lieut.-Commander Fletcher) mentioned the importance of oil. It is estimated that in a future war we should have to import 1,000,000 tons of oil, employing 100 ships, per month. The Navy will be required to provide escorts for those ships in order to ensure that our defence forces shall not be immobilised by lack of oil. I hope that the Admiralty will continue to build up and develop oil reserves in this country and encourage the production of oil from coal by buying up any surplus supplies which are available. To have proper oil reserves in this country is vital to our defence, and we should see that our oil supply is out of range of destruction by any foreign Power. The tanks should be well protected and removed as far as possible from the risk of attack from the air.

I come back to the question of the necessity for an adequate Fleet and I congratulate the Admiralty on placing before the country a policy of maintaining the strength of the Navy, of repairing our deficiencies in battleships and increasing the number of our cruisers. I would emphasise the point made by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for South Paddington (Vice-Admiral Taylor) on the question of personnel. We have recently seen the result of a shortage of personnel, in an emergency. That emergency, I believe, has been safely got over, but it does point to the fact which I hope the Government are considering that in any sudden emergency there should be a potential reserve of officers and men who would be immediately available to take command of the thousands of extra vessels which would be required for patrol duties and convoy duties. I believe that at the present moment the Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve have annual refreshers for officers and men so that they are capable of taking part immediately in case of emergency. I wonder if it would not be possible for such a scheme to be inaugurated for the Navy.

There must be thousands of men who have left the Service, thousands of naval officials who were "axed" and have retired since the War, whose knowledge is rusting with years, but who if they were given an opportunity of having short courses occasionally to modernise their nautical knowledge would form great potential reserves capable of jumping into the gap in the case of a sudden emergency. It would be a great thing to have that potential reserve. I will not continue, but I would like to say in conclusion how very much I appreciate the efforts of the Admiralty in their policy of maintaining the strength of the Navy. I hope they will expedite this policy, because time is precious if we are to take an effective part in trying to preserve the peace of Europe and carry out our part is collective security.