§ MR. MADDISON (Sheffield, Brightside)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether any complaints or representations have been received by his department from port sanitary authorities, medical officers, or Board of Trade officers, or from any other source, as to the insufficiency of accommodation provided for lascar or other Asiatic seamen on board British ships?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADECertain representations have from time to time been made to the Board of Trade by different authorities with respect to the matter to which the honourable Member refers.
§ MR. HAVELOCK WILSON (Middlesbrough)Can we have a copy of these representations laid on the Table of the House?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADEI do not think it at all expedient, convenient, or desirable that such communications to the Board of Trade should be laid on the Table of the House.
§ MR. STEADMANOn behalf of the honourable Member for Plymouth (Mr. MENDL), I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether any complaints 215 or representations have been made to his department by port sanitary authorities, medical officers, Board of Trade officers, or from any other source as to the insufficiency of accommodation provided for lascar or other Asiatic seamen on board British ships?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIAThe only representations on this subject which have been received, so far as I am aware, by my predecessors or by myself, are three in number—namely, one from a medical officer of the Port of London in 1891, another from the Bombay Port Health Officer in 1892, and a third from the Shipwright Surveyor of the Port of London in 1894.
§ MR. HAVELOCK WILSONCan the noble Lord state the nature of the representations? Was the complaint that the accommodation was not sufficient?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIAYes, the first was to the effect, I think, that the accommodation allotted to the lascars was blocked up by chests, and the others were that the space should be increased.