§ MR. DAVID THOMASI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been drawn to the circumstances attending the death of a Russian recently underground at a Merthyr colliery; whether he is aware that the deceased could speak neither English nor Welsh, the languages in which the special rules were printed and posted at the colliery, and could only be communicated with by the official by means of signs; and, seeing that the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, requires an Abstract of the Act and copy of the Special Rules to be posted up in legible characters in some conspicuous place, at or near the mine, where they may be conveniently read by the persons employ d, whether he will consider the desirability of prohibiting the employment of any person in the mine unless an Abstract of the Act and the Special Rules are posted up at the mine in the language understood and spoken by such person.
§ * MR. RITCHIEI have received a report on this case from the inspector in charge of the district which confirms the statements in the first paragraph of the Question. As regards the second paragraph, I am glad to learn that the owners of the mine in question have given instructions to their undermanagers not to employ in future foreigners ignorant of the language in which the posted Abstract of the Act and the Special Rules are printed.