§ Mr. DOUGLAS HALLasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the owners of the s.s. "Titanic" have repudiated liability to make compensation to the representatives of steerage passengers who lost their lives when that ship foundered; whether he is aware that, by clause 7 of the Board of Trade Regulations governing the issue of steerage passengers' tickets, it is provided that a contract ticket shall not contain on the face thereof any condition, stipulation, or exception not contained in this form; and whether, by reason of the fact that the tickets issued by the owners of the "Titanic" contained a clause on the back thereof exempting them from liability to passengers for loss, he is prepared to revise clause 7 by deleting therefrom the words on the face thereof?
Mr. BUXTONBefore considering the desirability of deleting the words "on the face thereof" from the steerage passenger contract ticket, I should require to be satisfied that owing to the presence of those words on the ticket, a shipowner can I legally escape the liability referred to.