DR. CAMERONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, taking into consideration the disastrously fatal consequences of the explosion which occurred on Thursday at the dynamite manufactory in Ayrshire, and the fact that there are no coroners in Scotland, he will follow the 20 precedent adopted in the case of the Daphne catastrophe in Glasgow, and order an independent and public investigation into the whole circumstances of the case?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI am informed that Colonel Ford, one of the Inspectors of Explosives, went down on Thursday night to conduct an investigation into this explosion.
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTNo, Sir. I will read what Colonel Majendie writes. I think it is a very good reason why the investigation should not be public. He says—
It would be impossible that such an inquiry should be conducted in public. The investigation will have to be carried on in the factory itself, and it involves visits to various dangerous departments, and an examination of the processes of manufacture, in some cases experimental, and any admission of the public to the buildings or factories would be obviously unsafe.
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI will consider that point.