§ MR. MOOREasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether he is aware that the United States Legislature is at present engaged in revising the Laws relating to emigrant ships; whether it is a fact that the number of emigrants which may be carried in each ship under the proposed legislation will be limited only by the amount of cubic capacity required, without any countercheck as to superficial area; whether the consequence of such a provision might not be to intensify existing evils, and, in the case of ships where the' tween decks are unusually high, lead to great overcrowding; and, whether Her Majesty's Government proposed to make any representation to the United States Government on the subject?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAIN, in reply, said, he was aware that there were two Bills on the subject referred to in the Question now under discussion in the Senate of the United States. He did not think any good purpose would be served by making anything in the nature of a formal representation to the Government of the United States in respect to the proposed legislation in the Legislature of that country; but he had, on behalf of the Board of Trade, called the attention of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the matter, and requested him to communicate to Mr. Sackville West the opinion of the Board of Trade that it was very desirable that the regulations of the two countries in respect to this matter should be as far 937 as possible identical, and to state that the British Government would be happy to consider any proposed amendments in their regulations, if such were thought to be desirable.