§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is able to lay any further information before the House in reference to the Anti-Irish riots at Tredegar; whether his attention has been called to the fact that some of the persons charged before the magistrates with participation in the riots have been treated with the greatest leniency, one being sentenced to but a fine of 10s. 6d.; and, if it be true that the Irish population has now been entirely driven from the locality; that hundreds of refugee families have landed in Cork in a state of absolute destitution; and, if any steps will be taken to obtain compensation for these sufferers?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI explained the other day that until an investigation has taken place before the magistrates, which I believe is going on to-day, I am not in a position to give any information. I am told that the fine was inflicted on a man who was not engaged in the principal rioting. I 717 am afraid it is true that a large part of the Irish population has been compelled to leave the district. It is one of the unfortunate results of violence and intimidation, whether in England or in Ireland, that it does produce consequences to innocent people, for which it is difficult to compensate them.
§ MR. O'DONNELLDoes the right hon. and learned Gentleman think that the riots against the Irish at Tredegar were encouraged by the leniency with which he treated the rioters against the Irish at Camborne?
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORThe right hon. and learned Gentleman is, I think, misinformed when he says that the person who was fined only 10s. 6d. did not take any part in the riots. I shall read from a report in a Welsh paper. The report states that the man was identified by a police constable as one of the rioters who threw stones at the police. I may also inform the right hon. and learned Gentleman that a somewhat similar offence was punished in Ireland by five years' penal servitude.