§ MR. CAVENDISH BENTINCKasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether he has read a statement which was published by Mr. Samuel Plimsoll, lately a Member of this House, in the "Times" newspaper of the 17th inst. and which is in the terms following:—
It should be widely known that, although in the five years ending with June last, 570 ships went to the bottom, each with every soul on board, only in eight oases was an inquiry instituted by the Board of Trade, although the men drowned numbered 6,469. In the last three years there were only 4hree inquiries in 340 eases;whether these 570 ships were employed in trading from the United Kingdom; or whether they include fishing vessels, and also ships trading between Foreign Countries and British Colonies, but not trading to or from the United Kingdom; whether it is the fact that, during the last three years, only three official inquiries have been held in 340 cases of shipwrecks and other casualties; and, whether to remove all doubts, he will lay upon the Table of this House a statement showing the number of official inquiries of all sorts held into wrecks and casualties during the last seven years; and, whether he has any reason to believe that the officers in his Department whose duty it is to order inquiries, and select cases for inquiry, have failed in their duty owing to inefficiency, negligence, corruption, or otherwise.
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINI have read the statement referred to. It is true that in the five years ending in June last, 570 British vessels were reported to the Board of Trade as missing, and that inquiries were instituted in eight of these cases only. It is also true that in the last three years 340 vessels were reported as missing, and that inquiries were instituted in three cases only. These vessels were not all simply employed in trading from the United Kingdom; they include fishing vessels, English and Colonial; they include Colonial vessels, and they include British vessels, English and Colonial, trading between ports out of the United Kingdom. The total number of judicial inquiries into shipwrecks of all kinds during the last 713 three years has been 1,024. Full particulars of all such inquiries will be laid before the Committee on Merchant Shipping now sitting, and of the method of instituting them; and for this reason I do not think it necessary to lay the same particulars before the House at the present time. The officers of the Department did early in last year urge the institution of further inquiries into the losses of certain missing vessels; and the result shows that, notwithstanding the difficulties of holding an inquiry when all the eye witnesses have perished, inquiries can, in some cases, be held with much advantage. But I have no reason to believe that the officers in the Department, whose duty it is to order inquiries or select cases for inquiry, have failed in their duty owing to inefficiency, negligence, or corruption.