§ 77. Lord H. CAVENDISH-BENTINCKasked whether the Government, in view of the number of mining disasters which have occurred in the last few years, culminating in the one at Senghenedd, will take immediate steps to summon an international conference to collect the knowledge so far obtained among the mining nations of the world in reference to the causes and preventive measures for explosions in mines, and to consider what further progress can be made?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply to this question. The Government have had under consideration a proposal to a similar effect which has been made by the United States Government, and they have expressed their willingness to summon a conference with a view to securing fuller interchange of views and co-operation between the mining departments and experimental stations of the different countries in regard to questions of safety in mines. It will be more useful, however, that the conference should take place when the important investigations which, as the Noble 1497 Lord is no doubt aware, the Home Office has been carrying on for some time into the question of explosions in mines are completed, and I have accordingly suggested that the conference should take place next year. I may add that the Committee which is conducting the Home Office investigations keeps itself informed of the work which is being done in the chief experimental stations abroad, and the results of its own work have been made available in the five full reports which the Home Office has already published.