27 FEBRUARY 1953, Page 5

The House of Commons is still awaiting with lively interest

the answer to Mr. W. M. Vane's postponed question on the slightly deliberate journey (reputedly at two miles an hour, though I find that a little hard to credit) of a 30-ton tank- landing-craft over the 440 miles from Ayr to Chatham earlier this month. Mr. Vane is asking very pertinently why this levia- than ashore should not have been conveyed by sea, its native element, from the port of Ayr to the port of Chatham, instead of holding up traffic on the main roads of Scotland and England, including those of the hon. member's own constituency of Westmorland, and ending up (as it did) by crashing into a bridge and a bus and overturning in a Chatham street. I hope he will ascertain how long the journey took. JANUS.