§ MR. J. HAVELOCK WILSON (Middlesbrough)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he can state the number of lifeboats, with the necessary crews and equipments, that are established and maintained on the coasts of the United Kingdom for the preservation of life and property in cases of shipwreck, out of the Mercantile Marine Fund?
§ MR. RITCHIEThe lifeboats at Ramsgate and Fair Isle are now the only lifeboats under the superintendence of the Board of Trade. The former is the property of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, but the Board of Trade pay the crew. The latter was established and is maintained out of the Mercantile Marine Fund.
§ MR. J. HAVELOCK WILSONasked whether the Merchant Shipping Act did not impose upon the Board of Trade the duty of providing lifeboats?
§ MR. RITCHIEsaid, that the Act imposed upon the Board of Trade the duty of providing lifeboats in cases where no lifeboats were already provided.
§ MR. J. BRYCE (Aberdeen, S.)asked whether the section of the Merchant Shipping Act did not expressly state that the Board of Trade were to provide lifeboats unless the lifeboats were provided from some other source?
§ MR. RITCHIEsaid, that was a matter which depended upon the interpretation of the Act, and he could offer no opinion with regard to it.
§ MR. J. HAVELOCK WILSONgave notice that he should call attention to the matter upon the Estimates.