§ MR. A. CROSSI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the attention of his Department has been directed to the serious dangers to which the public are exposed from the public sale and use of burning oils of low flash point, sanctioned by the legal flash limit of 73° Fah., especially in view of the experience of temperature during last summer, during which the shade temperature record shows (between April and September) 60 days on which 73° Fah. and upwards was registered, 20 days on which temperature was from 80 to 90° 1262 Fah., and three days when it was from 90 to 103° Fah., in London?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,)(who replied) Fife, E.said: The question of the flash point of mineral oil is, as I have said before on more than one occasion, an extremely disputable one; and, while representations have been made on the one side in favour of raising the flash point, other authorities are strongly opposed to any alteration to the same, this flash point having been adopted, after very careful experimental inquiry, as the equivalent in the closed test of the former flash point in the open test. The matter is one which would, no doubt, occupy the attention of any Committee of Inquiry which may hereafter be appointed on the subject of petroleum legislation.
§ MR. PAUL (Edinburgh, S.)When does the right hon. Gentleman propose to appoint the Committee on the Petroleum Acts which he promised us some time ago?
§ MR. ASQUITHI should be glad to appoint the Committee, but there has been some little difficulty in securing Members to serve on it and in deciding on the terms of Reference. The matter is, however, still having my careful consideration, and there shall be no avoidable delay.