§ Mr. KERR-SMILEYasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the captain of the steamship "Glenton," the property of the Ballycastle Shipping Company, was summoned to attend the Swansea Court on the morning of the 28th July, 1911, in respect of the charge of overloading, alleged to have taken place at Glasgow on the 22nd June last; will he state the explanation of the delay between the date of the alleged offence and the date of the taking of the proceedings; is he aware that on the case being called in Court on the 27th July it had to be adjourned till the following day, owing to the failure of the Board of Trade officers and his witnesses to attend the Court, with the consequent result of retaining the steamer for over twenty hours in the port of Swansea; and, seeing that the case was ultimately dismissed by the Court, whether the Board of Trade is prepared to compensate the owners for the detention of their steamer?
Mr. BUXTONAs the result of a report from the Board's surveyors at Glasgow, the master of the steamship "Glenton" was charged on 27th July last at the Swansea Police Court, with having allowed the vessel to be so loaded as to submerge the centre disc indicating the load-line on or about 22nd June. As six months are allowed by law within which proceedings may be instituted for this offence, there was no undue delay in this case in instituting proceedings, and the postponement of the hearing for a day was unfortunate but unavoidable. The Board of Trade are unable to entertain any application from the owners for compensation for any loss they may have incurred as a result of the institution of proceedings against the master of their vessel.