71. Sir GILBERT PARKERasked the President of the Board of Trade if, as he has previously stated, no change has taken place in international agreements or circumstances since 1906 which could affect the decision of the Law Officers of the Crown made in regard to the Merchant Shipping Bill of that year, he will say whether the position of alien pilotage remains where it was in 1888, when the Select Committee reported that in bestowing pilotage certificates on aliens this country was giving that for which she obtained, in the majority of cases, no reciprocal advantages from foreign Powers, although the Committee interpreted maritime treaties with foreign Powers in the sense that these Powers engage to give reciprocal advantages which have never been given?
Mr. ROBERTSONMy right hon. Friend is afraid that he cannot make the position clearer than he did in his reply to the hon. Member on Monday last. There is no ground, so far as he is aware, for the suggestion that foreign countries have engaged to give us certain advantages which they are now withholding.
Sir G. PARKERMay I ask the hon. Gentleman if it is not the case that the Committee decided in that direction, and 1620 that the Government took that into consideration?
72. Sir G. PARKERasked the President of the Board of Trade whether the frequency exemption Clause, No. 10 in last year's Pilotage Bill, was in excess of the recommendation of the Departmental Committee?
Mr. ROBERTSONThe principle embodied in Clause 10 was based on the recommendations of the Pilotage Committee. As the hon. Member is aware, owing to the practical difficulty affecting the pilots raised by this Clause, it does not reappear in this year's Bill.
73. Sir GILBERT PARKERasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, as against the French contention that the effect of Section 73 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1906] has been to impose on certain French vessels higher charges than those imposed on British vessels in the same circumstances, he will point out to the French Government that the only charge which could be imposed on French ships consequent on Section 73 would be in relation to compulsory pilotage, and that some of the most eminent judges of the British Admiralty Court have decided that compulsory pilotage is not a charge upon vessels but a regulation instituted for their benefit; and whether he will refer the French Government to the decision of Dr. Lushington, in the case of the "Hanna" in 1866, that compulsory pilotage was not a charge within the meaning of an international convention as to ship charges, and to the decision of Sir Robert Phillimore, in the case of the "Vesta" in 1882, approving of the previous case?
Mr. ROBERTSONThe hon. Member may rest assured that all appropriate and relevant arguments were used by the British delegates in the recent discussions with the French representatives. In the particular circumstances of the case, my right hon. Friend does not think that the argument suggested in the question could have been effectively used to combat any of the contentions advanced on the French side.