SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19831, 29 December 1927, Page 8

SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA.

Among the expressions of international co-operation that were interrupted by the Great War was the progress toward the adoption of standard precautions for the safety of passengers at sea. After the loss of the Titanic, an international conference was held in London in 1913. at which all the principal maritime nations were represented. Its deliberations resulted in unanimous agreement upon a convention relating to rules of navigation, construction of vessels, wireless equipment, life-saving appliances, lire protection and safety certificates. The convention was ratified by some of the j signatory Powers, but not by all, and owing to the war and other causes it was not brought into force completely in any State, though parts of it have been embodied in the law of individual States. The 1914 convention was recognised to be incomplete in some respects, and Great Britain was charged with the duty of promoting agreement on such points and on other matters where the progress of shipping might make revision desirable. Since the original convention has remained in abeyance and in view of the additional experience gained in the interval, particularly through the sinking of ships during the war, the British Board of Trade has taken the preliminary steps toward the summoning of a conference to be held in London 111 the autumn of 1928. it has addressed to the nations concerned a memorandum outlining its own suggestions and inviting them to express their views regarding amendments of the convention and the desirability of a conference being held. Although the subjects to be examined are chiefly technical and complicated, they are comprised within fairly simple classifications, such as subdivision of ships, lifesaving appliances, wireless telegraphy, lire-extinguishing appliances, ice patrol and collision regulations. A subject of acute interest at the 1913 conference was the ques (ion of providing boats sufficient for the whole ship's company. Experi ence during the war showed that in the event of sudden destruction of a ship, rafts and other buoyant apparatus that could be quickly thrown overboard had a special value. The question of wireless equipment has also been greatly simplified both by the technical improvement of the system and by the widespread adoption of its use at sea. Indeed, it may generally be said that reforms introduced by shipowners constitute a great advance on the position contemplated by the 1913 conference. Nevertheless, the purpose of the pronosed international convention is that measures for the protection of passengers nt sen shall not be nimplied only to vessels of progressive and enlightened ownership, hut shall be adopted generally in all ships for the safety of all go to sea.