The Board of Trade in the Dock. 



633 



called the Advisory Committee, which was to he set 

 up. So we see that in 1906 there was an admission of 

 the need of reform; but nothing has been done since. 

 Example could be piled on example, but to what 

 purpose.' The fact is clear enough: the Board of Trade, 

 as far as it has pretensions to control marine matters, 

 is hopelessly and farcically inefTicient. 



IN THE HANDS OF THE SHIPOWNERS. 



Then comes the question, " Is there any real chance 

 of reform, or must there be a purging ? " To have 

 some idea of this we must deal with the real power 

 behind the Throne and see who it is who controls the 

 Board of Trade, its President, and through them the 

 whole of this country's shipping. The whole situation 

 is, to put things bluntly, in the hands of the ship- 

 owners ; in other words, they control the regulations 

 which are supposed to force themselves to look after 

 the welfare of the travelling public. If it were not so 

 grimly serious, so tragically wrong, it would he farcical 

 and worthy of comic opera. Let the public once realise 

 the vicious circle that now exists, and a great step 

 forward towards reform will have been made. Two 

 Members referred to this state of things in the debate — 

 Sir Gilbert Parker and Mr. Sandys. The former said, 

 " The Board of Trade are depending upon the 

 advice of those who, on the whole, are most 

 interested in having the fewest lifeboats and the 

 minimum of regulations, compelling them to do things 

 which they thought were not necessary " ; while Mr. 

 Sandys was cc|ually outspoken. " If you are going 

 to leave it to the shipowners it will be far better not to 

 have any regulations of this kind at all. Then, at any 

 rate, the travelling public would know where they 

 were." Or, as one of the travelling public remarked 

 recently to the manager of one of the leading Atlantic 

 pa.sscnger lines, who had been explaining that boats, 

 life-belts, etc., were all unnecessary, because useless, 

 •• V'ou had belter advertise your steamers thus: — 

 • Passengers by this line do not need to be anxious as 

 to whether their lives will be saved in case of accident 

 or not ; they will know — that they are doomed before- 

 hand.' " 



• THE shipowners' SMOKEROOM." 



Nor is this idle talk when we see what is the 

 composition of the Merchant Shipping .Advisory Com- 

 mittee, that mainstiiy and protection of the President 

 of the Board of Trade. There arc eight shipowners, 

 two underwriters, two shipbuilders, two shipmasters, 

 two engineer ofTners, and two men representing the 

 Seamen's and Firemen's Union. The two additional 

 •members co-optefl by the Government were a ship- 



builder and a representative of shipowners. The Com- 

 mittee thus represents shipowners' interests or people 

 who are in the business to make money out of the 

 conveyance of passengers and cargo. There is no 

 representation of passengers or public. Is it a wonder 

 that the House of Commons is known amongst the 

 officers of our merchant service as '' the shipowners' 

 smokeroom " ? But the most damning thing about this 

 shipowners' Council of Ten is that its sittings are in 

 secret, and reports of its proceedings are not made 

 public. Such a state of things tends to reassure the 

 travelling public that — their safety will never be 

 allowed to interfere with the interests of shipowners. 



•' GOOD HEAVENS ! IT'S HOLLOW ! " 



Apart from these experts and interested parties, 

 we are forced to believe that the knowledge of the 

 President of the Board of Trade in these matters 

 dealing with ships is somewhat akin to that of the 

 prominent member of a political naval commission 

 in one of the European countries who had made a 

 great reputation in the Press and amongst his fellow- 

 countrymen as a naval expert. On one occasion he 

 happened to be summering in the neighbourhood of 

 the naval manoeuvre ground, and thus came to pay his 

 first visit to a warship, one of those bulwarks of his 

 country he had so ardently worked for. Delighted, he 

 looked at the guns, walked here and there on the deck 

 and bridges, and then was asked to go below. He 

 looked perfectly astonished, and cried out, " Good 

 Heavens, you don't mean to say it's hollow ! " 



IGNORANCE AND " OLD MOORE's ALMANAC." 



.Such ignorance alone on Mr. Buxton's part could 

 excuse acquiescence in such facts as that the Titanic 

 could have gone to sea with only half her crew-, 

 that the Board of Trade would not have cared, and, 

 even if caring, would not^have been able to stop her 

 doing so, or that, while there is no means of judging 

 of the efficiency of watertight compartments and 

 no regulations for so doing, a rule of the Board 

 of Trade lays down that " when ships of any class 

 are fitted with efficient watertight compartments to 

 the satisfaction of the Board of Trade, they shall 

 only be required to carry boats, rafts, and life-saving 

 apparatus to the extent of half of the capacity 

 required by these rules " ! We would call the atten- 

 tion of these shipowners, and others to whom are 

 entrusted the safety of ships, of crews, and of passengers, 

 that since January of this year at least fifteen British 

 vessels have gone down with 430 lives, before ever the 

 Tilntiir's end startled their puppets at the Board ol 



