Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (191 2), No. % 7 



The evasions of the Admiralty witness and his refusal 

 to produce documents when called upon in favour of 

 search-lights in lighting up icebergs were overruled by the 

 Court and the portions withheld were read and printed in 

 evidence. The report of the officer which the witness 

 said " he was instructed not to produce " was to the effect 

 that icebergs and icefields could be made conspicuous at 

 a distance of 2,000 yards, and that when the beam of 

 light struck the ice it looked brilliantly white. The 

 witness also stated, in answer to the President, that the 

 Admiralty had come to the decision that it would be 

 better for ships in the mercantile marine to be without 

 search-lights. 



In concluding their Repcrt, the Advisory Committee 

 set forth the importance of securing international uni- 

 formity in any new regulations which may be imposed 

 upon the shipping industry, and that any requirements of 

 importance should be enforced on the basis of an inter- 

 national agreement. As the respective views of the 

 American and British Committees on the primary question 

 of Search-lights are absolutely irreconcilable, the diplo- 

 matic proposals of the British Committee are not, at the 

 present juncture, to be taken seriously, as they are mani- 

 festly put forward to block the way to essential improve- 

 ments for an indefinite period of time. 



In view of the facts brought out by the several 

 Committees engaged in investigating the causes leading 

 to the loss of the " Titanic," it only remains for me to 

 repeat and to emphasise the statement made in my paper 

 read before the Society in May last, that the ultimate 

 responsibility of a calamity which the world deplores rests 

 upon the British naval authorities through their fatuous 

 policy of excluding search-lights from the Mercantile 

 Marine: — The moral forces of the Universe are as real 



