§ MR. WILLIAM HOLMSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, as no reference is made to adult women in the Royal Commission issued to inquire into the working of the Factory and Workshop Regulation Acts, it is intended to exclude their case either from the proposed inquiry 971 or from the recommendations to be made by the Commissioners in respect to the alteration and amendment of these Acts; and, if so, will he be good enough to inform the House how he proposes to meet the case of adult women who, under existing Acts, may be employed in bleach-works, print-works, finishing-works, and other branches of industry for sixty (and under certain circumstances for sixty-three) hours per week, while women employed under much more favourable conditions to health in textile factories are restricted to fifty-six hours and a half per week by the Factory Act of 1874?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, it was not the intention of the Government to control in any way the inquiry of the Royal Commission. Neither was there any wish to impose, as a general rule, any restrictions on the labour of adult persons. But, no doubt, the case of adult women might be made a subject of special provision in special eases. Where the Factory and Workshop Regulation Acts were not in operation, that would be a subject for consideration.