§ CAPTAIN PRICEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether there is in Plymouth at the present moment a member of the Metropolitan Police appointed for the carrying out of the Contagions Diseases Acts; and, if so, whether he is under his control; whether this officer has received instructions not to carry out the provisions of an Act still in force; from whom did he receive those instructions; and, would it be within the power of the local authorities to order that officer to carry out the Law?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT,in reply, said, that, properly speaking, there was no member of the Metropolitan Police appointed to carry out the Contagious Diseases Acts in Plymouth. The only statutory authority for employing the Metropolitan Police outside of the Metropolitan District was the Act of 1860. That was an Act for the employment of the Metropolitan Police Force in Her Majesty's yards and military stations. The present position of the Metropolitan Police at Plymouth was governed, as he understood it, by the Act of 1869. At the request of the local authority an Inspector of the Metropolitan Police was allowed to render assistance so far as the voluntary submission of women was concerned; but not as regarded compulsory examination. Of course, if the local authorities desired it, the Metropolitan Police Officers would desist from that duty. In answer to the last part of the Question, he had to say that he conceived the Metropolitan Police at Plymouth were under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State, and not of the local authority.