LOSS OF BRITISH SHIPS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 27 March 1935, Page 8

LOSS OF BRITISH SHIPS

Board of Trade Decision to Set Up Special Commission WIDE SCOPE OF INQUIRY STATEMENTS IN COMMONS (R Irish Official Wireless.) Received 3.0 p.m. to-day. RUGBY, March 26.

The President of the Board of Trade, Mr Walter Runciman, announced in the House of Commons that he had provided under the merchant -Shipping Act for the setting up of a formal investigation into the recent losses of certain British vessels with all hands by a Shipwreck Commission. Lord Merrivale, who had a long experience of such matters, would preside. The inquiry would cover the widest possible ground. Mr Runciman hoped that every effort would be made to provide the Commissioner with such material as was available, and that the data obtained would extend their knowledge and contribute towards safety at sea.

A member alleged that there were still plenty “slums of the sea” afloat, run by blacklegs of the shipping industry, who did not live up to the standard set by the best shipowners) Mr Runciman, replying, said the British manning scale was a model for the whole world. The Board of Trades inspecting was so severe that the British standard was the highest in the world. The member said there were 40,OIK) seamen unemployed, and the situation was becoming worse through large numbers of foreigners, especially LascaTs, being employed. Another member replied that the owners had been asked to employ British seamen wherever possible and observe the Maritime Board s wages scales. The. subsidy would not be paid unless these conditions were observed. The Bill passed the third reading.