The matter to which I wish to draw the attention of this honourable, if somewhat attenuated, House is one which merits a greater occasion than this; but the system of legislation and discussion which the present Government have adopted forces this important Scottish question to be treated in this comparatively minor way. The two subjects to which I wish to draw the attention of the House tonight are the present and future position of Rosyth, and the necessity for a large-scale graving dock on the River Clyde.

In order to grasp the picture adequately, it is necessary to go back just a little while in history. In the first world war, that tremendous concourse of naval ships known as the Grand Fleet found sanctuary in Scottish waters almost throughout the whole of the war—in the Firth of Forth, Rosyth, and Cromarty Firth. And so was vindicated the action of the Admiralty which, in 1903, had formulated plans to turn Rosyth into a first-class naval base, and which in 1909 had partly, at least, completed its plan. The Admiralty had created the only dockyard in the United Kingdom which, at any state of the tide and at any time of the night or day, could harbour the whole of the Grand Fleet. That, in itself, one would imagine, would have given Rosyth pride of place in all considerations of naval strategy, and it is to the naval strategy question that I should like to draw the attention of the House, because strategy must be paramount and all other considerations, weighty though they be, must, ultimately, depend on strategic conception.

At the same time that Rosyth was extended by the Admiralty, very considerable expenditure was undertaken by the local authorities there to keep the roadways and buildings up to date and in step with what the Admiralty was doing. It was with a good deal of surprise and consternation that we saw, after the war was finished, the Grand Fleet sail south. There followed a period of gloom and despair in that part of Scotland to which I refer. It seemed as though a great dust-sheet had been taken out and spread over a set of valuable furniture no longer in use. The priceless advantage of Scottish waters during that war was forgotten—until the next war came along. I said that we saw with surprise the Fleet move south because of the expert opinions which had been given. Earl Beatty, in January, 1919, said these words, supported almost in their entirety by Vice-Admiral Sir John Green, who was Admiral-Superintendent at Rosyth. I ask hon. Members to listen to these prescient words: The Firth of Forth in war-time has been the principal naval base of the greatest Fleet that has ever sailed the seas. I maintain that it should remain so. We have built a great dockyard—the most modern. We have an anchorage capable of receiving the greatest Fleet in the world. There are few on the coasts of Great Britain which are capable of doing so, and, although strategical reasons which have necessitated the development of the Firth of Forth do not appear on the surface very apparent at present, for the time being the Firth of Forth is as good a place as any other and, having been developed and vast moneys having been spent upon it, it should be used. Those words, falling from those lips, might have been calculated to bear considerable weight. When the second world war came along, we find, suddenly, the gloom and despair which had settled over Rosyth changed to something far different. All is bustle to get the place ready for the Fleet again. This time, we see a new Scottish waterway come into the picture—the Firth of Clyde. Once again, mighty fleets are concentrated in those parts. Is it surprising when one realises the relative invulnerability from air attack of the Clyde, as well as the Forth? It was a splendid invulnerability, and the invulner- ability ability from sea attack was almost complete Whatever attack may come in the future, be it by atomic bomb, guided rocket, or other missile, it will find a far more difficult target in Scotland than in the south of England. Yet, we see money spent on the development of Devonport, Chatham, and Portsmouth, which were ports virtually put out of action in the early stages of the last war. It is with regret that we heard today of flotilla after flotilla going into these ports in the south of England—Portland, Portsmouth, Chatham, Devonport—but not one to the bases to which I have referred; bases which have served this country well in two world wars.

May I turn for a moment to the Clyde? During this second world war, the Clyde was the scene of a concourse of ship ping, both battleships and transports, such as this country has never seen be fore. There ended one of those all-important Atlantic sea-lanes, by which this country's supplies of food and munitions were, in fact, brought across, and he would be a bold man today who would say that there is going to be no more war. If he says there is going to be more war, I ask where is it coming from—from the Atlantic or from Europe? There can only be one answer to that, and so once again we can expect to see these same naval waters in the Firth of Clyde harbouring the same ships, and playing the same important rôle in the supplies of this country. Convoys will once again have to be assembled as they were in the last war. Repairs will have to be carried out. Ships will have to be equipped. I say repairs will have to be carried out, because some repairs were carried out to those great vessels during the last war. But they were limited re pairs. Under-water repairs were carried out only on the smaller vessels and only floating repairs on the big vessels which came into the Firth of Clyde.

Surely, it is an anomaly that the Clyde, which can build and has built the biggest vessels which sail the seas, the "Queen Elizabeth" and the "Vanguard," can no longer repair these vessels in dry dock once they leave. The River Clyde is probably the greatest basin in Britain or in the world devoted to shipbuilding and marine engineering. Yet once these vessels sail on the great wide seas any under-water repairs which have to be carried out to them have to be carried out elsewhere, though the skill and experience are still there in the Clyde, and time and money are wasted in transferring it to the ships which are in some other area for under-water repairs. At the same time there may be grave risk to the ships themselves. This was perfectly clear to the Admiralty in 1944, because they wrote to the Greenock Harbour Authorities and the Clyde Trustees asking them to formulate plans for a graving dock, the dimensions of which were to be 1,200 by 135 by 46. Both these authorities sent their plans to the Admiralty. It is no part of my case to plead the claims of one or the other authority, but I am reinforced in my argument by the findings of that admirable report which came to be known as the Cooper Report, and which advocated that somewhere in the Clyde estuary a graving dock of this kind should be prepared.

Not only that, but the Clyde and the part which I am examining tonight is a Development Area. We see the Government bending their efforts to try to develop industries there. Very welcome though they are, they are foreign to many of the workers in that area. To use a mixed metaphor, it would be more "up the Clyde's street" if it were given the dry dock which it requires and for which it has the skill and experience, to carry out that work which has been the bread and butter of the workmen of the area almost for generations. So as a Development Area scheme, this project should be pushed forward and set on foot.

On the Clyde trade is dwindling. Already in 1946 it was half what it was in 1938, and in January of this year the Clyde Trustees found it necessary to increase the dues by 25 per cent. approximately over what they had been up to that date. Then coal, upon which the port of Glasgow and the Clyde in general depended so much as an export, has entirely disappeared, and so shipping depression has hit the Clyde. It has fallen heavily upon the Clyde and it is a measure such as this that would restart, and refurnish the possibilities, and the activities of that area. I know that the question of economy looms large before everybody's eyes at the present time, but I submit to the Government that economies which could not be endured are economies in those things which will be immediately productive. That is the whole of the Government's task at the present time: to distinguish between capital expenditure which will be immediately productive and that which will be only productive in the more distant future. A graving dock of these dimensions would be immediately productive. It has a strategical importance and a Development Area importance. Therefore, I press for this measure.

Back in 1944 a deputation came from-Scotland to wait upon the now Minister of Defence, when the claims of Rosyth were pressed. They were informed that that would be given the gravest consideration. Between that day and now only a deep silence has reigned. It is as though the Government had adopted as an example Rodin's statue "The Thinker" and were lost in permanent thought. But while they are deep in thought, Rosyth is deep in anxiety and in decay. I press for a decision now. Scotland presses for this. All we have heard today is lamentably poor talk from the Minister of Defence who tries to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds and say that while we are weak we are really strong. I accept this from him at its face value, that at the moment we are reducing ourselves to a situation of comparative impotence intending later on to strengthen our Fleet again, and that once again these important ships are to be at our disposal. If they are to be at our disposal, and if there is danger of war these battleships once again are going to leave for these waters of Scotland which have furnished anchorage for them in two world wars. I am reminded of the poem by Kipling of the soldier about whom; while he is fighting, it is a case of "Tommy here and Tommy there" but when the fighting is over he is forgotten. If the House will substitute the name "Jock" for "Tommy," they will realise pretty clearly how Scotland feels on these matters.