§ Lord ALEXANDER THYNNEI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade a question of which I have given him private notice, namely, whether the tug-masters employed in the trade of the Port of London have been applied to by the lightermen to reduce their average working hours to seventy-two hours per week; whether up to the present it has been impossible to arrange a meeting between the representatives of the masters and the representatives of the men, and whether the Board of Trade have been invited to intervene?
Mr. BUXTONYes, the attention of the Board of Trade has been drawn to this, matter, but at the present time it is inadvisable that I should make any statement on the subject.