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85
"(5) The Board of Trade may appoint officers for the purposes of any
inspection under this section, and may, with the concurrence of the Treasury,
assign them remuneration to be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament."
I was directed to report further on the subject, especially with reference to
the Board of Trade letter of June 30th, and the Town Clerk was directed to
write to the Board of Trade on the subject in the terms of my report—this
he did under date of September 16th, 1909, as follows:—
"Guildhall, E.C.,
"September 16?A, 1909.
"Sir,
Re s.s. "PONTOP."
"Your letter of the 30th June, 1909, has been laid before the Port of
London Sanitary Committee, and I am directed to thank you for the
same and for the information contained therein as to the powers vested
in the Board of Trade by the Merchant Shipping Acts with respect to
provisions intended for the use of crews.
"The Port Sanitary Committee have carefully considered your letter,
and I am directed to offer the following observations thereon:—
"It would appear that it is necessary, under section 198, for not less
than three of the crew of a British ship to make complaint as to the
quality, &c., of the provisions or water supplied to them.
"1 would also remind the Board of Trade that in the case of vessels
arriving in this country at the termination of a voyage, the crews are
usually paid off, and the men are only too anxious to get ashore and are
not therefore inclined to spend their time in appearing before the proper
person to make a complaint, even if, as seems doubtful, they are aware
of the procedure available for their taking action under the Merchant
Shipping Acts, should they be supplied with unsound or insufficient food
and water. Moreover, it may not at the time of arrival be possible to
produce evidence as to the condition of the food supplied to the men
during some period of the voyage, as an unscrupulous master may have
destroyed it with a view to concealing evidence of any such complaint.
"Sub-section 4, although perhaps necessary to prevent unreasonable
complaints, is, in the opinion of the Port Sanitary Committee, likely to
act as a deterrent and prevent reasonable complaints being put forward.
"It is noted that under section 26 of the Merchant Shipping Act,
1906, the inspector may inspect provisions or water intended for the use
of the crew of a ship, but this is not obligatory.
"I enclose an extract from the Medical Officer's report where unsound
meat has been found recently on four vessels, which would certainly have
been detected had there been any obligatory system of inspection.