§ SIR G. BADEN-POWELLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in reference to the recent explosion on the Brambles, which caused such a lamentable loss of eight lives among the Cowes Trinity House employés, whether it is the general practice of the Trinity House still to use time fuses in the removal of wrecks by means of explosives instead of electric firing; what is the certified training in dealing with explosives required in the superintending officials; and what will 1266 be the character of the inquiry into this disaster?
§ MR. ASQUITHColonel Ford, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Explosives, by my direction, is at present conducting an inquiry, under the Explosives Act, into all the circumstances attending this accident. The question of the kind of fuse employed and the competency of those superintending the operations will form part of the inquiry, and as soon as the Report is completed it will, as is usual in such cases, be laid before Parliament without delay.