§ MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether the Board of Trade has has given further consideration to the findings of the Court of Inquiry held at 567 New York, in the case of the collision between the Britannic and Celtic in a fog, and to the recommendations of the Council of the Mercantile Marine Service Association, that the International Regulations of Navigation should be so amended that distinctive signals by long and short blasts on a steam whistle or foghorn, to indicate the course of vessels, shall be used in fogs as well as when another vessel is in sight; and, whether the Board has, as yet, entered into communications with the United States and other Governments as to the advisability and possibility of minimizing the risk of collision in fog, by amending the International Regulations in the way suggested by the Mercantile Marine Service Association?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)The attention of the Board of Trade has been given to the subject referred to by the hon. Member; and the whole question of signalling at sea was referred by my Predecessor in Office to a Committee, consisting of the Assistant Secretary to the Marine Department of the Board of Trade, Admiral Sir F. L. M'Clintock, Captain Bowden-Smith, R.N., Sir G. Nares, Sir Digby Murray, Captain C. P. Wilson, the Registrar General of Seamen, and the Secretary of Lloyd's. The Committee is now sitting; and until I receive their Report I can, of course, give no answer.