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An article in The Times on November 24 suggested that, because the official inquiry team into the sinking of the Titanic included a number of freemasons, it might have toned down or omitted criticisms of particular individuals involved in the disaster who were also masons in deference to the vows that masons take to support each other. Alistair Lexden took up this issue in a letter published in The Times on November 29.
Sir, It is misleading for anyone to suggest that the Titanic inquiry in 1912 was neutered because freemasons were involved in it (“Freemasons suspected of Titanic cover-up”, Nov.24). Its chairman, Lord Mersey, was a judge of fearless independence and asperity of character. He got the task because he was Wreck Commissioner of the United Kingdom. The inquiry interrupted work that he greatly preferred as chairman of a minimum wage committee in Newcastle. All the evidence was sifted over a two-month period by the law officers of the crown, Sir Rufus Isaacs and Sir John Simon, who were no friends of freemasonry.
Lord Lexden
House of Lords