§ MR. O. V. MORGAN (Battersea)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware of the urgent need of a new cemetery for Battersea, and that it is impossible to obtain a site within the parish, in which there are about 2,500 deaths per annum; whether it is a fact that the opposition to the proposal to establish a cemetery at Rosehill Park, Button (which site has been officially proved by the Government Medical Officer under the Burials Act), comes from a very limited part of the district, as against the unanimous decision of the people of Battersea; and, whether he can state the grounds upon which the necessary certificate is withheld, in view of the great public urgency of the matter?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I am aware that there is great need of a new cemetery for South London, including Battersea. I am not a ware whether it is possible to procure a site is Battersea. The opposition to the cemetery at Rosehill Park comes from Public Bodies, from landowners, from residents, and, so far as I can judge, from a majority in Button. I am daily receiving communications on the subject, and am expecting others. The necessary sanction has been hitherto withheld because it was twice refused by my Predecessor and myself on former applications, while the present renewed application by the Battersea Board was not made till June. The site was approved by the Government medical officer, only subject to certain sanitary conditions which I do not see my way at present to enforce efficiently, because the opposition of Button is such as I have described, and because I am not without hopes that the parties interested may still arrive at an agreement as to some modified scheme. I must add 707 that the most fitting procedure in this case would have been an application to Parliament, such as was successfully made in the case of other great Metropolitan cemeteries.