§ Mr. HALL CAINE(by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can make any statement on the accident which took place on Monday, 5th May, in the Bibby Oil Cake Mills, Great Howard Street, Liverpool, in which a number of people have lost their lives?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Clynes)I have received to-day a preliminary report on this distressing disaster, which has, I deeply regret to say, involved the loss of several lives and a number of serious injuries. The circumstances call for searching investigation, and it is much too early to arrive at any definite conclusion, but the explosion is thought, at present, to have resulted from a spontaneous combustion of rice meal in one of the silos, which ignited a cloud of dust within the silo. The Chief Inspector of Factories informs me that he has sent one of the Engineering Inspectors, who has special experience of these dust explosions, to Liverpool to assist in the inquiry. I would take this opportunity to express the sympathy, which I know will be felt by everyone in this House, with the relatives of the deceased.