§ 70. Mr. STEWARTasked the President of the Board of Trade whether a local seafarers' union, having its offices at Southampton, which is said to represent some three or four thousand sailors and firemen, has been granted direct representation on the management committee of the Seamen's National Insurance Society; whether an application for similar representation on the Derelicts Committee by the Imperial Merchant Service Guild, representing some 15,000 captains and officers of the merchant service, was refused; and, if so, will he explain why discrimination in this way is shown by the Board of Trade?
Mr. ROBERTSONI do not see what the two cases have in common. In the former one out of three seats available for representatives of sailors and firemen was allotted to the particular union named in the question. In the latter case only one seat was available for a representative of shipmasters, and the method of selection which was adopted was fully explained in the reply which my right hon. 1637 Friend gave to the question of the hon. Member for the Devizes Division of Wiltshire on 17th July, of which I am sending the hon. Member a copy.