SIR: With reference to previous correspondence between this department and your committee respecting the revision of the statutory rules for life-saving appliances on British ships, and particularly to the letter from this department of April 16, in which you were informed that the question of the proposed amendment of the rules so as to admit of decked lifeboats being stowed one above another or one under an open lifeboat, was under consideration, I am directed by the board of trade to state, for the information of your committee, that the board of trade will be glad if the committee will consider whether any, and if so what, amendments of the rules, and in particular of the rule of April 19, 1910, and the rule of June 14, 1911, are, in their opinion, desirable with the object of supplementing the boats immediately under davits by as much additional boat accommodation as is practicable, having regard to the new situation which has been created by the recent disaster to the steamship _Titanic_. A plan illustrating the principle is being prepared so as to be in readiness for your committee by Friday. I am, etc., WALTER J. HOWELL. The SECRETARY, _Merchant Shipping Advisory Committee_. * * * * * BOARD OF TRADE, MARINE DEPARTMENT, 7, WHITEHALL GARDENS, _London, S. W., April 25, 1912_. SIR: With reference to previous correspondence respecting the proposed revision of the statutory regulations as to boats and life-saving appliances on ships, I am directed by the board of trade to state, for the information of the merchant shipping advisory committee, that, apart from the questions which have been raised regarding the boat accommodation on vessels over 10,000 tons, it seems desirable to consider whether the provision of boats and other life-saving appliances required by the rules in the case of vessels under 10,000 tons is satisfactory, or whether the rules or the boat scale should be altered in respect of their application to such vessels; and the board would be glad to be favored with the observations of the committee on this point in addition to those that have already been referred to them. I am, etc., WALTER J. HOWELL. The SECRETARY, _Merchant Shipping Advisory Committee_. * * * * * To these letters the advisory committee sent the following answer: * * * * * MERCHANT SHIPPING ADVISORY COMMITTEE, 7, WHITEHALL GARDENS, _London, S. W., April 27, 1912_. SIR: We are desired by the merchant shipping advisory committee to inform you that your letters of the 16th, 20th, 24th, and 25th instant were brought before the committee at a meeting held yesterday.