BRITISH PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1925, Page 2

BRITISH PARLIAMENT

(.Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.] BRITISH NAVAL PLANS. BASKS TO BE CLOSED. LONDON, Dec. 12. In the House of Commons Air Adamson moved a motion condemning the closing of the Rosyth and Pembroke naval dockyards, which he said, would mean a saving of only £328.0(H) compared with C 58."0'. 10.000 being spent on new ( misers and the eleven millions on the Singapore base, and would also mean the extinction of two towns. In reply. Mr W. C. Bridgeman (First lord of tile Admiralty) warned the House that the Ministry were eonteniplaiiug naval economics much larger thiin anything yet done, and said the new proposals would fall far more heavily upon England than upon Scotland or Wales. Air Lloyd George vigorously opposed the closing of the bases mentioned. .Mr Ramsay MacDonald contended that the Government's decision, coupled with the new enterprise at Singapore. meant a change in the Admiralty’s strategy from the North Sea to the Pacific. Therefore it was not economy at all. Mr Davidson, in closing the debate, indicated that Sheerness base would also he scrapped. The motion was rejected by 237 votes to 05.