Alexander challenges plans to replace rather than retain cruisers

Why scrap existing cruisers if the government intended to expand the programme from fifty to seventy cruisers?

The prime minister did not answer the procurement issue directly and said it would be debated during the Navy Vote's report stage.

A. V. Alexander contrasted the announced seventy-cruiser programme with the earlier force of fifty, including ten overage ships. He framed replacement as a potential waste when retaining older hulls might increase the number immediately available. The question exposed a tension between modernisation and numerical strength under treaty accounting. The prime minister did not resolve whether the cruisers were still militarily useful or legally retainable. He deferred the issue to the report stage of the Navy Vote, where procurement and fleet policy could receive fuller debate.