§ MR. MACDONA (Southwark, Rotherhithe)I beg to ask the President o* the Board of Trade whether he is aware that at a meeting of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, held on 16th November, it was stated that 400 derelicts or floating wrecks were at the present moment in the Gulf Stream within a distance of 1,350 miles; and that it was stated at this meeting that in all probability the steamship Naronic was lost in the Atlantic through running upon one of these floating wrecks; and whether, in view of the fact that so many thousands of lives are every moment jeopardised by these derelicts, the Government will propose joint action with the American Government to blow up these derelicts?
§ MR. ARNOLD-FORSTER (Belfast, W.)asked if it was not the fact that the hydrographers of the United States Navy had expressed a strong desire to co-operate with Her Majesty's Government in this matter; and whether they had not performed on the other side of 1268 the Atlantic the duty we were asked to perform on this?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE, (Mr. MUNDELLA,) Sheffield, BrightsideI cannot say when the statistics given in by the hon. Member were obtained. The question of the removal of derelict vessels from ocean routes was one of the questions considered by the International Maritime Conference held at Washington in 1889. The recommendations made by that Conference are being carefully considered, but they involve International and other questions of much difficulty and complexity.