§ MR. TENNANT (Berwickshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of an explosion on board the steamer Eastlands, owned by Messrs. J. T. Wilson and Company, of West Hartlepool, caused by a tin of bitumastic enamel, by which the boatswain was killed on the spot, and another of the crew so badly injured that he died; and whether the Home Office has any jurisdiction over the use of these explosive and inflammable paints and enamels; if not, whether he will consider the advisability of bringing in a short Bill laying down safeguards and conditions under which such dangerous compounds must be stored, used, or handled?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTI have been supplied by the Board of Trade with a report of this case. It occurred through an accident while the ship was being loaded in a foreign port. The matter is not, in these circumstances, within the jurisdiction either of the Home Office or of the Board of Trade, but the Board of Trade have recently issued a notice calling the attention of masters and officers of ships to the dangers in the use of inflammable paint.
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)Can the right honourable Gentleman say what was the nature of the accident?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTIt was not an accident arising from the use of inflammable paints. A cask was broken while, being loaded in a foreign port—in Russia, I believe; the vapours escaped, and the explosion was caused by some ignorant person taking a lighted match into the hold.