§ MR. BELLAIRSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state to the House the resolution which was unanimously passed by Lord Rayleigh's Committee in reference to the destruction of all blasting explosives containing mercuric chloride; and whether the Committee, in addition to the Home Office experts, included many distinguished War Office and independent experts.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe resolution to which the hon. Member refers related only to those blasting explosives containing mercuric chloride which were at the time under seizure in Messrs. Kynoch's magazines. It was passed unanimously by the Conference after hearing what Messrs. Kynoch's representatives had to say, and its terms were as follows:—"That inasmuch as these explosives are admitted to contain an unauthorised constituent which masks the official test on which the acceptance of the explosives depends, and inasmuch as an explosion has occurred which has been ascribed to spontaneous combustion in the official report to the Home Office by the Inspector of Explosives, the Conference cannot with the evidence before them recommend that these explosives may consistently with the public safety be put to any useful purpose or dealt with in any manner otherwise than by destruction." The Conference included distinguished Admiralty and independent experts, but, in view of the litigation pending between the War Office and Messrs. Kynoch, it was not deemed desirable that the War Office experts originally appointed members should attend this particular meeting.