§ 83. Mr. C. BATHURSTasked whether it is customary to notify British commercial companies established abroad that they are not qualified to be owners of British ships; and if the President of the 1486 Board of Trade will state, as such companies cannot own steamers under a foreign flag, under what flag are they to trade and to what Government are they to look for protection?
Mr. BUXTONIt is not customary to formally notify British companies established abroad—which are presumed to know the Imperial law on the subject—that they are not qualified to be owners of British ships, and in this connection I would refer the hon. Member to the provisions of Sections 1 and 21 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, and Section 51 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1906. British companies which, by domiciling themselves abroad, are thereby disqualified from owning British ships, are, if they are also debarred from owning steamers under a foreign flag, in the position of corporations which must conduct their trading operations without themselves being owners of ships.
§ Mr. C. BATHURSTDoes that mean, in such a case, that they cannot fly the British flag or any other country's flag, and that they are only like pirates on the high seas?