398 



The Review of Reviews. 



fact that all their boast of unsinkable 

 ships with respect to the Titanic 

 has been proved hollow by their own 

 action in sending the sister ship, the 

 Olympic, to have a complete second 

 shell fitted, and that their new ship 

 will be built on far more sane lines than 

 was the Titanic. The Shipowners' 

 Parliamentary Committee, whose mem- 

 bers represent upwards of nine-tenths 

 of the British tonnage afloat, have 

 passed resolutions in view of the im- 

 pending debate on Lord Mersey's 

 Inquiry, which will take place as soon 

 as the House meets. They protest in 

 no measured terms against the Life- 

 Saving Apphances rules — " a departure 

 of the most serious character, imposing 

 on passenger ships a hard-and-fast life- 

 boat scale based solely on the numbers 

 carried." They have the effrontery to 

 say that " any departure from the 

 principle adopted unanimously by the 

 Merchant Shipping Advisory Com- 

 mittee, upon which all the shipping 

 interests were fully represented — 

 namely, that ' the stabihty and sea- 

 worthy qualities of the vessel itself must 

 be regarded as of primary importance, 

 and every provision made against possible 

 disaster must be subordinated to that 

 primary consideration ' — will gravely 

 imperil the safety of life at sea." It is 

 perhaps natural, although undoubtedly 

 regrettable, that the shipowners of this 

 country, blind to the necessity of re- 

 establishing the prestige of the British 

 Mercantile Marine in the eyes of the 

 world, should thus lose no time in ranging 

 themselves definitely against the princi- 

 ple of giving every passenger a chance 

 for life. They know well that to advise 

 the handing over of mercantile matters 



to the Merchant Shipping Advisory 

 Committee, on which, as they truly say, 

 " the shipping interests were fuUy 

 represented," is a modest way of sajdng 

 that the shipowning interests would 

 dominate it. But it is not in the 

 interests of the public that any such 

 bolstering up of a system which has 

 already proved disastrous to this country 

 should be tolerated. The loss of the 

 steamer North Briton has called attention 

 to another result of the domination of the 

 shipowner over the Board of Trade, 

 and recalls the fact that several years 

 ago the Plimsoll load-line was raised in 

 order to enable the shipowner to make 

 a few hundred pounds more in freight. 

 This decision, which was solely made in 

 the interests of the pockets of the ship- 

 owners, has been responsible for many 

 wrecks and hundreds of lost lives. 

 This is so clearly recognised in shipping 

 circles that the mark on the ship's side, 

 which is the permanent monument to 

 Mr. Phmsoll, might well be replaced by 

 a skull and cross-bones — an appropriate 

 monument to those responsible for 

 raising the load-line. 



It is useless for the 



Ulster and Home Liberal and Nationalist 



Rule. Press and statesmen to 



endeavour to stop 

 Ulster by ridiculing the Covenant which 

 Sir Edward Carson was the first to sign 

 at Belfast on September 28th. There 

 can be no doubt that, however much the 

 elements of theatrical display entered 

 into the proceeding, it was an occasion 

 on which a very great number of our 

 fellow-citizens took a serious step 

 seriously. To ridicule, to make cheap 

 jeers, is not only an endeavour to avoid 

 the realisation of the true results of the 



