§ MR. D. A. THOMAS (Merthyr Tydvil)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has yet received a communication from the Merthyr Valley Colliery workmen in favour of the appointment of practical miners as Sub-Assistant Inspectors of Mines; whether his attention has been called to the recommendation of the Coroner's Jury on the Cilfynydd Colliery explosion in favour of more frequent inspections of mines; and whether he will re-consider his decision and appoint persons from the ranks of the workmen as Sub-Assistant Inspectors of Coal Mines, as he has recently done for the Merionethshire quarries?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe answer to the first two paragraphs is in the affirmative. I have recently appointed two men of practical experience as workmen to be Assistant Inspectors of Quarries and Metalliferous Mines. This is as far as I can go in the present year; nor can I give any pledge as to the future, except that I will give full consideration to these and other representations in the same sense.