MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade, whether he still adheres to the decision of the Board of Trade, as communicated in its circular of the 6th March, 1894, to shipowners, to recommend to Her Majesty that the revised regulations for preventing collisions at sea, therein 189 referred to, should he carried into effect by Order in Council: and, whether, if any modification of this decision has since been arrived at, he can inform the House what that modification is and to what points it extends.
§ MR. BRYCEInasmuch as any objections which may exist to the putting in force of the regulations for preventing collisions at sea recommended by the International Conference at Washington, as subsequently revised, appear to me to be outweighed by the objection to allowing the results of that Conference to be lost and the hope of international agreement in an improved code of regulations abandoned, I have seen no reason to depart from the decision of the Board of Trade referred to in the question of March 6, 1894.
§ MR. BRYCENo, Sir, it will be impossible to enforce them in March. They will require to be notified by Order in Council which must lie upon the Table of the House for 40 days. After that it is necessary that notice should reach shipping in all parts of the world.
MR. GIBSON BOWLESIs it a fact that the action of France has been delayed in consequence of uncertainty as to the action of the British Government?
§ MR. BRYCEI am not in a position to say. The question should be addressed to the hon. Member the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs. We have been for some time without any answer from France as to the date.