§ MR. DILLWYN (for Mr. CARBUTT)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether he has seen a Blue Book entitled "Merchant Shipping (Experiment on Steel)."—Memorandum issued by Board of Trade for use of Surveyors, containing the Remarks of the Engineer Surveyor in Chief and his Assistants upon the use of Milled Steel manufactured by the Steel Company of Scotland, together with an Appendix showing the Tabular Results of Experiments made with regard thereto; and, if so, whether he would take into his consideration how far it is fair to other manufacturers of steel who have been longer engaged in perfecting the material, and who have had more experience, that the weight of the Department should be used to bring before the public one of the latest established steel works in Great Britain; whether he will give the same facilities to the large steel works in South Wales, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, who for years have supplied Her Majesty's Dockyards, to have experiments on their steel brought under the notice of Parliament with the same publicity; and, whether he would state the total cost of the Blue Book issue, which is charged 5s. 6d. to the public?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINSir, I am glad the Question has been asked, as it gives me an opportunity of publicly correcting a misapprehension on which it is based. The facts of the case are these. The Board of Trade is under statutory obligation to fix the maximum pressure beyond which marine boilers shall not be worked, and recently, in 841 consequence of the introduction of milled steel, out of which these boilers are now made, applications have been made to the Board of Trade by the makers of steel and users of these boilers to reduce the prohibition as to safety. The Board of Trade replied that they could not do that without proper evidence, and then the makers of steel requested the Board of Trade to undertake experiments for that purpose. The Board of Trade replied that they had no funds out of which to conduct such experiments, but that they would have no objections to allowing their officers to attend and supervise the experiments, and to publish the results if conducted at the expense of the companies concerned. Six considerable firms accepted the offer of the Board of Trade, and the first experiments were made by the Northern Company of Scotland, and were the first completed. The Blue Book referred to in the Question gives the result of those experiments. There are five other series of experiments to be made, and the results will be published in their turn. The Board of Trade will be ready to extend the same facilities to any other Companies under the same conditions. I do not think the Blue Book has been an expensive one; but it was absolutely necessary that the results of the experiments should be published for the information of the Board of Trade and the Admiralty.