§ Mr. R. YOUNGasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, at the International Diplomatic Conference for the revision of the 1914 Convention on Safety of Life at Sea, which His Majesty's Government have taken the initiative of summoning, the question of overloading, in its national and international aspects, will be discussed?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe object of the Conference on Safety of Life at Sea, which meets next April, is to revise the 1914 Convention, which dealt mainly with ocean-going passenger ships and did not deal with questions of overloading. The coming Conference will, I think, be fully occupied with the revision of the 1914 Convention. It would not be practicable to have an international discussion on the question of overloading until the revision of the present load line2836W rules by the Load Line Committee has been completed and the revised draft has been considered by the other Governments concerned. No time will be lost in pushing on with this preparatory work, but I am afraid there is no chance of it being completed by April.