§ SIR ROBERT FOWLER (London)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, in view of the objectionable scenes which have occurred, on various occasions, in connection with the public removal of convicts and other prisoners by Railway from one establishment to another, the Government will adopt the practice, long in use in Belgium, of appropriating one or more Railway carriages of special construction for the less exposed transit of prisoners?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CHILDERS) (Edinburgh, S.)In reply to the hon. Baronet, I have to say that my attention has never been called to any objectionable scenes in connection with the removal of prisoners by railway, and I do not know to what particular instances the hon. Baronet refers. In the absence of any evidence to show me that the present system is a bad one and liable to abuse, I should not feel justified in proposing any change, which could only be carried out at very great cost.