[139] Deacon, J. Byron, _Disasters_ (N. Y., 1918), p. 43. [140] Ross, _op. cit._, p. 253. The student of social legislation who reads this book will turn first to this chapter, and ask what permanent legislation will the future associate with so dire a calamity as that suffered at Halifax. It may be said that not only has special disaster legislation of precedent-setting value been enacted serving in a measure to standardize relief legislative procedure, but social legislation of wider application and more general character ensued. And this was along the line which the student of social law should be led to expect. As calamitous epidemics bring forth regulations of sanitation; as marine disasters foster regulations ensuring greater safety at sea, it might well be expected that a great explosion would bring about regulations controlling the handling of explosives. And this is in reality what has occurred. There were approved on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1919, by the Parliament of Canada, regulations respecting the loading and handling of explosives in harbors, applicable to all public harbors in Canada, to which the provisions of Part XII of the Canada Shipping Act apply; and to all other public harbors insofar as the same are not inconsistent with regulations already or hereafter made applicable.[141] They cover 1. The provision of special areas for berth, for explosives-carriers. 2. Regulations of ship control to be observed in the navigation in harbors of explosives-laden vessels. 3. Regulations to be observed upon vessels carrying explosives. 4. Regulations governing the handling of explosives. "The enactment of these regulations" writes the Under-Secretary of State for Canada[142] "was suggested in large measure by the Halifax disaster." Had these regulations been in effect and observed in Halifax Harbor it is hardly conceivable that the great disaster of 1917 could have occurred. [141] _Regulations for the Loading and Handling of Explosives in the Harbors of Canada_ (Ottawa, June, 1919). [142] In a letter to the author. It should be borne in mind that the recommendation for this general legislation of social utility originated with the Drysdale commission--a board of enquiry appointed by the Federal Government to determine the cause of the disaster and whose judgment, was issued on February fourth, 1918. In Section XIII of this judgment, the following occurs: that the regulations governing the traffic in Halifax harbor in force since the war were prepared by competent naval authorities; that such traffic regulations do not specifically deal with the handling of ships laden with explosives, and we recommend that such competent authority forthwith take up and make specific regulations dealing with such subject.