§ MR. FOSTER (Suffolk, Lowestoft)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the remarks of the President of the Admiralty Court, as reported on the 20th instant, under the heading, "Grievances of Pilots," in an action by Thomas Whit wall, a licensed Trinity House pilot, on behalf of a large body of pilots, to test the construction (if the Merchant Shipping (Exemption from Pilotage) Act, 1897, the defendants being the owners of a Norwegian ship whose captain had refused the services of an English pilot to pilot the vessel up the Thames to Gravesend; whether he is aware that the learned President expressed his great regret that there was no codification of a few simple rules laying down as to when ships should be under compulsory pilotage; whether any steps will be taken by the Government to carry out this recommendation; and whether, in view of the finding of the Court in the case, that foreign vessels without passengers are exempt from pilotage under the Act of 1894 and the Act of 1897, while British ships are not to exempted, the Government propose to take any and what steps to remedy this difference of treatment as between British and foreign ships and British and foreign pilots in British waters?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. C. T. RITCHIE,) CroydonI have seen a newspaper report of the judgment of the President of the Admiralty 598 Division of the High Court in the case of Whitwall versus Owners of "Columbus." The Board of Trade will bear in mind the remarks of the learned President as to the desirability of codifying the rules as to compulsory pilotage, but this could not be done without repealing and re-enacting the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts relating to pilotage, a task which I am not at present prepared to undertake. The honourable Member is, I am advised, not correct in his view of the law as to British ships. British ships when not carrying passengers are by Section 625 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, exempted from compulsory pilotage in the London District.
§ MR. FOSTERMay I ask whether it is the fact that foreign passenger vessels, if their masters hold pilot certificates, are exempt, from taking pilots?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADEI should prefer to have notice of that Question; it is totally different to the one on the paper.