§ MR. WHALLEYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been given to a statement in The Times newspaper of the 11th of May, that six young ladies had escaped from a convent at Glossop, and having walked to Sheffield, a distance of twenty-five miles, were there taken charge of by the police, and by them handed over to another convent called Notre Dame at the request of the Superior of the convent from which they had escaped; whether it is his opinion that the police at Sheffield were justified in so acting; whether any inquiry will be instituted as to the circumstances connected with this escape; and, generally, whether any, and what, means are available for affording protection to any such persons against detention in convents against their will?
§ MR. GATHORNE HARDYSir, in consequence of the Question put down upon the Paper by the hon. Member for Peterborough, and addressed to my right hon. Friend who was then at the Home Department, inquiries were made of the Mayor of Sheffield as to what had taken place with regard to the escape of girls from a school at Glossop. The word used was a convent. I understand that it was a school attached to a convent, but that the girls were not themselves inmates of a convent. On that point I have no particular information. Perhaps the best answer I can give to the Question is to read the reply which was received from the Mayor of Sheffield. He says—
There is little to be said in answer to your letter of yesterday beyond what appears in the annexed paragraph"—That is, the paragraph published in The Times—The girls, thinking themselves ill-used by a teacher, ran away from school, called, for some reason, no doubt, a convent. On arriving at Sheffield they applied at the Police Office for food and shelter. One of the girls had a sister at school, in what is known as the Convent of Notre Dame at Sheffield, and whom she had seen that same evening. She said the scholars were well-treated there. From this sister it became known to the lady of the establishment that the runaway girls were in Sheffield without money or food. The lady, thinking it undesirable that the girls should pass the night in the streets, sent out in search of them. Inquiry was made of a policeman on duty in the streets, who advised an application at the Police Office. There the girls were found, and all gladly accepted the kind offer from the Sheffield School. On the following day they 938 communicated with their friends, and are, I understand, all at home, and neither at a school nor a convent. I need scarcely add that there is no accommodation at the Police Office for a bevy of runaway school girls. In my opinion the officers on duty behaved very kindly and very prudently. There is no truth in that part of the report that states the escape of an inmate from the Sheffield School. The whole is a pretty story of "Much ado about nothing.That is the answer I have received from the Mayor of Sheffield. The hon. Gentleman further asks me for my own opinion. It is of very little importance, but I confess I agree with the Mayor of Sheffield, that the police seem to have done their duty. The girls applied for shelter and were taken in; and when they had a home more suitable to their condition offered them the police took them there. The only inquiry instituted on the part of the Government is that to which the answer I have read has been received. As to any protection which may be available for people under similar circumstances, I am not aware of any protection but that which is afforded by the law of the land — I mean the Habeas Corpus. As I stated in reply to one of the parents, it is not the part of the Government, but of the parents themselves, to institute proceedings if they think their children have been ill-treated in the school.
§ MR. WHALLEYsaid, he wished, by the permission of the House, to put another Question to the right hon. Gentleman arising out of the answer he had just given. He had reason to believe that the statement just read was from the beginning to the end a tissue of misrepresentations. ["Order!"] He wished to know whether the right hon. Gentleman would grant a Return of the Correspondence which has taken place with the Home Office upon this subject?
§ MR. GATHORNE HARDYsaid, the only thing in the nature of correspondence was the reply to the inquiry which had been addressed to the Mayor of Sheffield. That would appear in the public prints; but if the hon. Member wished to move for its production as a separate Parliamentary Paper—["No, no!"]