§ 4. Major Sir ARCHIBALD SINCLAIRasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to the wreck of the Grimsby trawler "King Edward VII" at Brims Ness on the night of 2nd February: and whether, seeing that this is the fourth wreck on the same stretch of coast within the last 12 months, he will reconsider the question of sanctioning the building of a lighthouse at Strathy Point?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERMy attention has been drawn to the wreck mentioned. The initiative in reviving the scheme for a lighthouse at Strathy Point rests with the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, who are the General Lighthouse Authority. In 1925 the scheme was provided for in the Authority's Estimates, but was not pressed by them in view of the heavy expense of £34,000 involved and of the lack of funds for more urgent lighthouse works. Moreover, the work was criticised by the Advisory Committee to the Board of Trade on new lighthouse works, on the ground that it was not necessary in the interests of general navigation, and it failed to receive the statutory approval of the Trinity House on that ground, with the result that the Board of Trade did not give their financial sanction. The scheme has not been provided for in the Estimates of the Commissioners since 1925.
§ Sir A. SINCLAIRSeeing that ten men on this trawler were rescued in a heavy sea in the dead of night only through the pluck and seamanship of the Thurso lifeboat crew, and seeing that there have been four further wrecks on this coast within twelve months, will not the right hon. Gentleman take the matter into consideration, these facts being fresh since the date of the last investigation?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe answer to that question is two-fold. In the first place, I have no power to initiate lighthouse construction. That is a matter, the initiation of which rests with the lighthouse authorities. Of course, if a scheme for a lighthouse is put forward by the proper lighthouse authorities that will receive full consideration by Trinity House and the Board of Trade; and, in the second place, although there have 929 been four wrecks within a good many miles of this place, one or two of them were much nearer to a lighthouse a, good way to the east, and I would certainly hesitate to say whether those wrecks could have been prevented by a lighthouse at this point.
§ Mr. WOMERSLEYIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is a considerable increase of traffic by reason of trawlers going further north than was the case in 1925, and will he make representations to the Lighthouse Commissioners at any rate to take observations and see how much traffic really does pass along this coast?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI do not think it is for me to make representations to the Lighthouse Commissioners. The lighthouse authorities are very alive to all these questions, but of course you have to consider what is the relevant urgency of different classes of work, and there may be places which think it desirable to have unlimited expenditure but which do not call for immediate attention.