MR. TANKERVILLE CHAMBER-LAYNE (Southampton)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he can explain why the finding of the bodies of six British sailors on the French coast, near the Island of Sein, on or before the 10th of December, 1893, was not reported to the owners of the lost ship, or to the public, until the 21st of March, 1894, although all the bodies had life-belts on them, with the names of the owners (R. Ropner and Co.) in full, and the finding of them was duly reported to the Board of Trade?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD or TRADE (Mr. BRYCE,) Aberdeen, S.The names of the crew of the missing vessel Halsey were published in the Monthly Return of Deaths of Seamen for December, 1893, which is regularly-printed and widely circulated, and the fact that one of the bodies had been identified was stated in that publication. The other bodies picked up were not Identified, and had been buried before their discovery was reported to the Board of Trade. The particulars furnished by the Consul at Brest were referred to the Board's solicitor to be brought out at the inquiry which had been ordered, and the Board regret that as the Press did not copy the information from the Monthly Return it did not obtain more general publicity.