§ 5. Mr. WINGasked the President of the Board of Trade whether any, and, if so, what consideration has been given by the Board of Trade to arrangements for existing ships with a view to improvements providing increased safety, as suggested in Article 16 of the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; whether any regulations have been made or are contemplated to give effect to the provisions of the convention in that behalf; and whether in view of the fact that all new ships, that is, those ships the keel of which is laid after 1st July, 1915, are by the terms of the convention to be constructed to admit of the application of the provisions of the convention, the Board of Trade propose to promulgate at an early date the necessary regulations and take all necessary steps to give effect to the convention?
Mr. RUNCIMANAs regards existing ships, the Board of Trade are adopting the recommendations contained in Chapter X. of the Report of the Bulkheads Committee, and the necessary regulations will be issued as soon as possible. Regulations and instructions will shortly be issued with regard to new ships. It will not be possible owing to the War to enforce the full requirements of the Convention at the time proposed by the International Conference, but every effort will be made to secure that new passenger ships shall, wherever it is at all practicable to do so, comply fully with the standard laid down by the Convention.
§ 6. Mr. WINGasked what steps, if any, have been taken to bring into operation the recommendations contained in the Report of the Departmental Committee on Boats and Davits, dated 15th May, 1913; whether any regulations have been made or are contemplated thereunder; and whether any inventions or suggestions have been submitted to the Board of Trade since the issue of the Report which the Board considers can be adopted to effectually carry out all or any of the recommendations contained in the Report?
Mr. RUNCIMANPractically the whole of the recommendations of the Boats and Davits Committee have been given effect to in the statutory Life-saving Appliances Rules. No difficulty is experienced in practice in effectively carrying out these recommendations.
§ Mr. WINGThe right hon. Gentleman has not answered the latter part of my question: whether any inventions or suggestions have been submitted to the Board of Trade?
Mr. RUNCIMANI can only say that there is scarcely a week passes without some inventions being submitted to the Board of Trade. The trouble is to find out which of these is of real value.