THE fourth International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea was held at Church House, Westminster, from the 17th of May to the 17th of June, 1960. The three earlier conferences had been held in 1913, 1929 and 1948.

There were some six hundred participants at the conference, fifty- four countries being represented, of which forty-seven sent delegations.

The organising body was the Inter- Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation, the United Kingdom Government acting as host. Sir Gilmour Jenkins, the former per- manent secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, presided, representatives of the United States Coastguard and the Soviet Ministry of Merchant Marine acting as vice- presidents.

The conference adopted fifty-six recommendations on subjects connected with maritime safety. In his closing speech summarising the progress made Sir Gilmour Jenkins said : "I have never, in my long experience, seen a conference which faced and tackled so great a task with such speed and determination." Supersedes Earlier Convention He described the new convention adopted by the conference, which supersedes the convention of 1948, as a substantial advance on its prede- cessor, for it took full account of the lessons which experience had taught and of the scientific and technical advances made in the last twelve years.

Among the agreements which he singled out were the application of provisions for carrying radio equipment in cargo ships of 300 tons and over ; a new requirement of periodical sur- veys of the hull and machinery of cargo ships, in addition to the established surveys of safety and radio equipment ; more stringent requirements affecting the sub-division of some types of passenger ships, their stability, water- tight integrity, electrical installations and methods of dealing with fires.

In the field of life-saving applications he considered that the most spectacular change was the recognition of the inflatable life-raft. Other new pro- visions concerned the substitution of diesel for petrol engines in ships' boats and the wider use of gravity davits.

Not Applied to Fishing Vessels For greater safety in navigation changes were made in distress and rescue procedures, in the use of direc- tion finding apparatus and in the transmitting of navigational warnings.

A number of recommendations to secure the improvement of air-sea rescue arrangements and of means of communication between ships and air- craft were also adopted.

Provisions affecting the carriage of grain and other bulk cargoes and dangerous goods were revised and brought up to date, and changes in regulations concerning collisions in- cluded the proper use of radar and guidance in the training of navigating officers. A number of recommenda- tions concerning nuclear ships were also adopted.

After considerable discussion the conference decided not to extend the provisions of the new convention to fishing vessels, but governments are being recommended to apply the pro- visions of the convention as far as is reasonable and practicable both to fishing vessels and to smaller cargo ships..