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The RfahiW of Reviews. 



l)ettti-, there may be other means far more desirable ; 

 but wc and the travelling public do mean to see that, 

 in some way or another, every i)assenger in every 

 vessel is going to have a chance for his life. To 

 guarantee safety is manifestly impossible, in everyday 

 life as well as on the sea. We are ignorant, we 

 travelling public, and so must cast around for a 

 means to enforce our determination to make the 

 fullest use of our unanimous force. 



S.4V1NG MONEY, NOI' LIVES ! 



It would be almost unfair to e.xpect the shipping 

 companies to do everything themselves. They are 

 generally at the mercy of their shareholders, hungry 

 for dividends. It is natural, then, that those respon- 

 sible for the great liners should always prefer to listen 

 to inventors who offer improvements which will save 

 money and not those which will save passengers' 

 lives. But the shipping companies are not those 

 primarilv responsible -we must seek further. Indeed, 

 the companies have said, and said rightly, that they 

 have carried out all the necessary precautions, and 

 many more than those ordained by the regulations. 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE ? 



Who is responsible for thes3 regulations, which 

 govern the well-being of the mercantile marine of the 

 greatest of all maritime powers? It is the Board of 

 Trade. The world habitually and naturally looks to 

 ihis country for a lead in matters maritime, and very 

 pride in this knowledge should force us to jirove our 

 right to lead. But what do we find ? The Board of 

 Trade regulations are hopelessly antiquated and un- 

 suited to modern requirements and conditions. The 

 inspections are in many instances simply farcical, and 

 the department itself lacks vitality, lacks reasoned 

 intelligence as a whole, and seems to .have been 

 content to see its powers gradually atrophy. Surely 

 this is a di.sgrace to an Empire whose greatness has 

 been built up on the sea and is now maintained by its 

 shijiping ! It is the Board of Trade which is respon- 

 sible for the loss of the Titanic, and the loss of the 

 hundreds who perished so cruelly and so unnecessarily. 

 It is also responsible for the risks being run at this 

 moment in all vessels at .sea. The companies carry 

 more boats than the regulations demand, and yet they 

 have announced their intention of uow providing 

 adequate boat accommodation 1 



THE BOARD OF TRADE IN THE DOCK. 



The Board of Trade is in the prisoner's dock, and 

 the British people must not rest until the travelling 

 public shall have some more adequate reason for 

 confid'^nce in travel than heretofore. The public — 



ignorant, inarticulate, not organised for continuous 

 action— cannot regulate steamship traffic, cannot 

 demand, nor see carried out, precautionary measures, 

 neither should it be asked to do so. The Board ot 

 Trade is, or should be, the striking arm of the public, 

 acting in the public interest, just as its officials are 

 paid with public mone)'. The Board of Trade is the 

 servant of the public, and a very slovenly, useless 

 servant it seems to be — supine in an ignorance and 

 incompetence beside which the ignorance of even a 

 backwoods American Senator is perfect knowledge. 

 In our next number we will deal fully with this most 

 vital of all immediate questions, touching as it does 

 the lives of all those who go down to the sea in 

 ships— and in these days it will be difficult to find 

 anyone who either does not travel or who has not 

 someone hear and dear who must venture on the 

 broad or narrow seas. 



EVERYONE A CHANCE OF LIFE. 



For the sake of all these we demand that the 

 jmblic's servant, the Board of Trade, shall adequately 

 perfoim its duties, and shall without delay see to it 

 that every passenger on a British vessel shall have as 

 good a chance of life in case of disaster as it is 

 humanly possible to secure. If it is necessary to 

 have different appliances for different disasters, let 

 them see to it— we reaffirm our ignorance, but 

 demand knowledge in those who should know. 

 ^Vhere this country leads others will follow ; but 

 what a national disgrace it would be if the British 

 Empire had to follow the lead of another country. 

 And yet even that would be better than to offer every 

 jiassenger only a bare three to one chance of life, 

 and that only under favourable circuinstances. Let 

 us not forget either that, while an honest belief in 

 unsinkability may be taken to explain, if not to 

 excuse, shortage of boat accommodation, we have no 

 real knowledge of the ideas of those who hold the 

 unsinkable theory and are responsible for boat 

 shortage in the case of a fire at sea. But pos;:ihly 

 the Board of Trade considers modern liners fireproof 

 — like American skyscrapers ! 



OUR DETERMlN.VnON. 



We feel strongly that, just as " two keels to one " 

 should be this country's motto in naval construction, 

 " every passenger a chance for life " is the goal 

 towards which we must strive in mercantile matters. 

 The founder of the Review of Reviews was 

 responsible for making the British Navy efficient, and 

 we can think of no more suitable memorial to hii.i 

 th.rn to work for the etliciency and honour ol the 

 British Merchant Service. 



