§ Mr. McNamaraasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about the stage reached in the official inquiries into the trawler casualties which occurred earlier this year.
§ Mr. CroslandI have received the reports of the preliminary inquiries into the losses of the three Hull trawlers "St. Romanus", "Kingston Peridot" and "Ross Cleveland". As my hon. Friend announced at the time of their loss, there will be public formal investigations into the causes of these casualties. With the agreement of my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor, the three investigations will be held consecutively under one Wreck Commissioner. The first of these hearings will begin at Kingston-upon-Hull on 9th October. I have also studied the reports of preliminary inquiries into the strandings, at about the same time as the loss of the "Ross Cleveland", of the three trawlers "Boston Typhoon", "Notts County" and "Kingston Andalu-site". I have decided not to order formal investigations into these three strandings.—[Vol. 758, c. 139.]