§ Mr. Priorasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has now received the Report of the Liberian inquiry into the loss of the British vessel s.s. "Irene"; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsThe "Irene was registered in Liberia. I have received the report of the Liberian inquiry and am placing a copy in the Library. Briefly, the report concludes that the primary factor in the loss of the "Irene" was the extraordinarily heavy weather encountered, but that there was ground for criticising the actions of the master. His certificate has therefore been suspended for six months.
Following this casualty the Board of Trade had immediately ordered a preliminary inquiry of its own. However, disciplinary action can be taken only by the authorities of the flag State, and for this reason we offered the Liberian authorities all the help we could in pursuing their inquiry. Had the "Irene" been a British vessel, I should also have sought to deal with the master's certificate, and would have ordered a formal investigation for that purpose. The length of the suspension would have been for the court to decide.