§ Mr. EDGAR JONESasked whether the Home Secretary can state the new arrangements for the inspection of mines in South Wales; the names of the various grades of inspectors; the towns at which they will reside; which of the inspectors have a competent knowledge of the Welsh language; and whether the divisional inspector would take charge of the inquiries usually made by the Home Office immediately after an explosion or similar disaster?
§ Mr. MASTERMANParticulars of the new arrangement of the mines inspection districts, which follows the scheme recommended by the Royal Commission on Mines, were published in the newspapers last April. The names and residential towns of the different grades of inspectors in South Wales are as follows:—Divisional inspector, W. N. Atkinson (Bridgend for the present, he will remove later to Cardiff); senior inspectors, J. Dyer Lewis (Swansea), F. J. Trump (Cardiff), F. N. White (Newport); junior inspectors, A. Pearson (Bridgend), T. S. Davies (Cardiff), J. M. Carey (Newport). Mr. Atkinson does not speak Welsh. Mr. Davies, who was transferred from the Southern District on the transference of Monmouthshire (there being no other Welsh-speaking junior), has some knowledge of Welsh. All the other inspectors named have a competent knowledge of the Welsh language. The divisional inspector, who is perhaps, of all the inspectors in the United Kingdom, the one with the greatest expert knowledge in regard to explosions, would, of course, take charge of the inquiries which would follow any serious accident, but he would always have the assistance of one or more of the inspectors who act under him.