London, Sept. 9. The full text has now been issued of the International Load Line Convention, which was signed unanimously on behalf of 29 countries at the recent London conference.
The convention, when ratified, will take effect from July 1, 1932' and will apply to all merchant ships of 150 tons gross and over. engaged in international voyages.
It lays down definite rules for the loading of ships according to the part of the world in which they may be. The United Kingdom delegates say in their report that the conference comprised technical and nautical representatives of all the principal maritime nations, whose considered opinion is that the new rules are a marked improvement om anything which has gone before.
The United Kingdom delegates, are satisfied that the new rules will raise the standard of safety of merchant ships throughout the world. They draw attention to two outstanding points, namely, the protection of deck opening and the traducing for the first time on British ships of special load lines for timber ships and tankers. - The extreme importance of protecting, all deck openings in bad weather is. recognized by all seamen and rules. fon this subject are made more definite than ever before.
Uniform loading rules for ships of all nations are established for the first time—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.