His Majesty the King has acknowledged the messages of sympathy over the ill-fated submarine Thetis, which he received from the heads of States all over the world, including President Lebrun, President Roosevelt, Queen Wilhelmina and Herr Hitler.—
Reuter. given by the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in the House of Commons yesterday in the course of a statement on the disaster.
Messrs. Cammell Laird, the builders of the submarine, he said, were making provision for the dependents of their staff, and the Lord Mayor of London, in' accordance with the feelings of the country, had opened a public subscription.
The Prime Minister, who described the tragedy as "this lamentable disaster," expressed, on behalf of the Government, profound sorrow at the loss of so many valuable lives, and;|deep sympathy with the relatives who had been bereaved.
He announced that a full public enquiry would be held and that, in the meantime, the usual naval enquiry would take place, and the report and evidence at the naval enquiry would be available at the public enquiry, The personnel of the committee of enquiry was under active consideration.
Answering questions whether the public enquiry would await the salvaging of the Thetis, Mr. Chamberlain said that it would be opened as early as possible, but that it would be quite impossible to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion until the submarine was salvaged and conditions inside ascertained,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.