§ MR. BOLAND (Kerry, S.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether his attention has been called to the continued damage caused to the Atlantic cables off the coast of Ballinskelligs, county Kerry, by trawlers; and whether, in view of the representations made by the United States Government and the chambers of commerce in the United States and England on this subject, he will use his influence to have these trawlers excluded from the cable zone, within which thirteen cables are laid, to a distance of about fifteen miles from the shore.
2066 (Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) My attention has been drawn to recent further cases of damage to the Atlantic cables off the coast of Kerry which are attributed to trawlers. In consultation with the President of the Board of Trade I appointed a committee last summer which carefully investigated the whole question. The committee had before it a proposal made by certain of the cable companies that trawlers should be excluded from an area extending some seventy miles from the shore (not fifteen miles, as suggested in the hon. Member's Question), in which damage attributed by the companies to trawlers had occurred. The committee considered this proposal impracticable, a view in which His Majesty's Government concur. It reported, however, in favour of an alternative proposal made by certain cable companies for the inspection of trawling gear, and the practical steps to be taken to give effect to this recommendation are now under the consideration of the Departments concerned.