§ SIR HENRY HOAREasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware that on the night of Tuesday the 24th instant there was almost a total absence of policemen from duty in Kensington; why the gates of Kensington Gardens were open till close on midnight; whether they were so owing to there being no policeman or other official to close them; and, whether it has been reported to him that several robberies were committed that same night in and about the neighbourhood of Campden Hill?
MR. BRUCEI presume, Sir, my hon. Friend has not put these Questions without some grounds for believing that the statements they contain are well founded. If so, he has great cause to complain of his informant. The facts are these. The ordinary hour for closing the gates of Kensington Gardens is 9 o'clock. On the evening of the 24th vast numbers of carriages and great crowds of people assembled in Hyde Park to witness the return of the Shah from the Windsor Review, and it being necessary to preserve order, some few of the policemen from Kensington Gardens were withdrawn from their ordinary duties, and detained to a later hour than was expected, so that the north gates were not closed until 40 minutes past 9, and all the other gates between 9 and half-past 9. There was an ample body 1555 of police to preserve order, and no robberies nor any irregularities were reported to the Kensington police as having been committed during that night; and I am obliged to my hon. Friend for the opportunity of stating a fact very creditable to the vast population of the West End of London and its suburbs, that during the past week not a single larceny was reported to the police as having been committed between Westminster and Staines.