§ MR. PICTONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Metropolitan Police Autho- 18 rities have made, or are intending to make, any relaxation of the regulations as to licences and badges of omnibus drivers and conductors during the continuance of the present strike; and whether, if any such relaxation is proposed, he will disallow it?
§ MR. CUNINGHAME GRAHAM (Lanark, S.W.)May I ask whether policemen have been accompanying certain omnibuses during the last 48 hours, and, if so, for what reason and by whose authority; further, by whose authority was a member of the London County Council, Mr. John Burns, removed from an omnibus by the police; and did the Magistrate decide that the cause was trivial when the case came before him?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS,) Birmingham, E.I am informed by the Commissioner of Police that no relaxation of the regulations as to licences and badges of omnibusmen has been made, and that there is no intention to make any. As far as I am aware, the police never accompanied any omnibus except when some breach of the peace was anticipated to those driving or conducting the omnibus. I am informed that the member of the London County Council referred to was charged with intimidating a driver, and the learned Magistrate conceived that the driver was not lawfully following the occupation of a driver because he had no licence.
§ MR. PICTONHow did it happen that neither the driver nor the conductor on the omnibus in question had licences or badges, and were therefore treated by the Magistrate as having illegally followed their occupation.
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have no official Report from the Magistrate, and therefore I would rather be excused from alluding to the reasons which may have governed him. The Act of Parliament provides that, in a case of unavoidable necessity, neither driver nor conductor shall be liable to a penalty for being without a licence for 24 hours.