MR. LEATHAM BRIGHT (Stoke-upon-Trent)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is true, as reported in the Press, that the Government have agreed to pay an additional £20,000 to the parties interested in the collision between the Ville de Victoria and H.M.S. Sultan; if so, whether the Government have made any representations as to compensating the seamen who lost all their effects by the running down of the Nith; and, out of what fund the £40,000 will be paid?
§ THE SECRETARY (Mr. JACKSON) (Leeds, N.)There is no foundation for the report that Her Majesty's Government has agreed to pay an additional £20,000 for the benefit of the families of those who were drowned on the occasion of the collision between H.M.S. Sultan and the French ship the Ville de Victoria, or of the passengers who lost their effects owing to the collision. The case of the Nith is different from that of the Ville de Victoria; and I am afraid I can only repeat the expression which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has already conveyed to the owners of the Nith of his regret at the result of their appeal to the French Law Courts, and his sympathy with their disappointment at the decision; but as that decision has been arrived at in accordance with French law, Her Majesty's Government is precluded from making any diplomatic representations on the subject.