§ MR. JOYCEI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been directed to the accident which occurred to a seaman, named Ernest Franklin, now an inmate of the Hamidryad Hospital, Cardiff, who received a spinal injury on board the sailing ship "Kelburn" on the morning that the vessel left Cardiff for Cape Town, from the fall of a large quantity of mooring chain; that, although the seaman repeatedly requested the captain to send him ashore in the tow boat, he was kept on board for over three months; whether he is aware that, on the arrival of the vessel at Cape Town, the man was detained in hospital until the 13th March, and then sent to Southampton in charge of the doctor of the steamship "Dunvegan Castle"; also that he has written to the owner asking for some compensation, and that the owner has failed to acknowledge these letters; also that the Secretary to the Seamen's Union has addressed a further communication to the owner pointing out the serious nature of the man's injury, but has received no answer; whether the Board of Trade intends to ask the owner to grant compensation to this seamen; and whether they intend at an early date to introduce legislation to compel shipowners to pay compensation to seamen for injuries as employers on shore have to pay their workmen.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe hon. Member's question is the first intimation I have received of the case to which he refers. I am making inquiries in the 1161 matter, and am in communication with the owners of the "Kelburn." I am not in a position to give any undertaking at the present moment with regard to the legislation suggested in the last paragraph of the question.