And Mr. Plimsoll loves sailors not wisely, but too well.
Mr. Plimsoll had given the following answer to a question put to him before the Commission of Inquiry :—" You do not really wish the Commission to understand that the Board of Trade wilfully withholds evidence in a matter of this kind, do you ?" "Yes, I do. I do not say that Mr. Chichester Fortescue or Mr. Peel are in any way responsible for this, but I believe that the Board of Trade in many of its officers is corrupt, and that it is the strong- hold of the worst men in the shipping interest." Whereupon the Secretary writes to Mr. Plimsoll for the names of the officers
at whom he points these charges, and the nature of the corruption alleged; information which Mr. Plimsoll blandly declines to give, stating that the question is irrelevant to the issue between the department and himself. We shoat& have thought the question most relevant, not only to that issue, butt to the authenticity of everything Mr. Plimsoll alleges, and espeoialLy relevant to the- cause of justice. But Mr. Plimsoll's idea of justice is limited to. justice to sailors. Unless you are likely to go to sea in a leaky. ship, injustice, in Mr. Plimsoll's eyes, is no injury.
Previous page
