§ SIR ROBERT ROPNER (Stockton)To ask the President of the Board of Trade if, in view of the fact that a foreign vessel with cargo on board can call at a port in the United Kingdom and take on board bunker coals and by so doing become overloaded and below what her fixed load-line would have been if under the British flag, he will consider the advisability of obtaining for the Board of Trade the power to detain such foreign ships as would be done in the case of British vessels.
(Answered by Mr. Bonar Law.) The inequality to which my hon. friend calls attention exists. The Law as it stands only enables the Board of Trade to detain a foreign ship for overloading when she takes on board cargo at a port in the United Kingdom; and the Board are advised that bunker coal is not cargo within the meaning of the Act. Upon the point of legislation I would refer my hon. friend to a Question put on the 23rd April† by the hon. Member for Tynemouth and the reply thereto given by my right hon. friend the President of the Board of Trade. The matter referred to might very properly be dealt with in such a Bill.