§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether hospitals on board passenger steamships of the Mercantile Marino, and of Transatlantic liners in particular, are kept solely for the accommodation of the sick among the passengers and crew; whether they are ever permitted to be used by ships' officers and engineers who have let their state rooms to passengers for remuneration; whether they are ever used as surgeries; whether the regulation medicine chest, as ordered by the Board of Trade, is usually or ever kept in the hospital; whether the 1706 plates bearing the several inscriptions, Male and Female Hospital respectively, are ever removed after the Board of Trade officers have made their inspection at Liverpool or Queenstown, and the accommodation utilised for cabin or intermediate passengers; and, by what means can the Government prevent or detect such breaches of the Rules and Regulations of the Board of Trade?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)I have caused inquiry to be made, and am assured that the irregularities suggested by the hon. Member's Question do not occur in vessels coming under the Passengers Acts. The hospitals are kept solely for the sick, and are not used for any other purpose except in case of emergency. Sometimes the medicine chest is kept in the hospital, but usually in the surgeon's room; and, in many instances, separate dispensaries are fitted up. The Board of Trade officers at the several emigration ports report that the plates indicating the different hospitals have never, to their knowledge, been removed; and that they have every reason to believe that the Acts and Regulations are generally complied with. I should not hesitate to order a prosecution in any case in which evidence of a contravention was shown. I am informed, also, that it is a part of the inspection by Government officials in Canada and the United States to see that the ship's hospital accommodation is satisfactory; and that the strictness with which this inspection is carried out, coupled with the vigilance of the officials in this country, renders evasion of the law in Transatlantic vessels extremely difficult, if not impossible. When a ship carries "cabin" passengers only, and no emigrant passengers, the Board are given to understand that in some lines the space that would be required for hospitals if emigrants were carried is sometimes used for cabin passenger accommodation; but this is not a contravention of the Passengers Acts.
§ DR. TANNERwished to ask the right hon. Gentleman, in the interests of common humanity, when he stated these irregularities did not occur in vessels coming under the Passengers Acts, was he to understand from the right hon. Gentleman that the larger Cunard vessels, which merely carried cabin passengers, gave up their hospital accommodation, 1707 when necessary, for the benefit of such passengers; and might he ask the right hon. Gentleman whether it was a fact that the ships to which he alluded were some of the largest ships in the Atlantic trade, and absolutely had separate surgeries detached from the hospital; and might he also ask whether it was in the spirit and according to the letter of the Rules and Regulations of the Board of Trade that the unfortunate poor steerage passengers—people who could not afford to pay more than the bare passage across—should be subject to the noxious fumes of medicines in closely confined hospital cabins while crossing the Atlantic—might he ask the right hon. Gentleman—["Order!"]—Well, he was merely asking these Questions in the interests of humanity, and he was sure his hon. Friends around him would support him—might he ask the right hon. Gentleman whether an arrangement could be entered into with the officials on the other side of the water—the American agents and officials—which would satisfactorily help to protect these unfortunate creatures from being mercilessly ill-treated by the officials on board ships, in order that more money might be squeezed out of—
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS - BEACHsaid, he did not think the hon. Member had any right to make such a charge unless he had some proof. He had already told the hon. Member that if he could give any evidence to show that the laws had been violated, he (Sir Michael Hicks-Beach) would order a prosecution to be undertaken, if the evidence was sufficient to justify a prosecution.
§ DR. TANNERThough I presume I am asking the right hon. Gentleman too much, may I ask him this—Is he aware that if the medical officers on board ship ventured to give such evidence as the right hon. Gentleman demands, they would be immediately sent about their business, and be deprived of the means of earning their daily bread?—
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!