§ MR. CAINE (Barrow-in-Furness)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to the organized attacks upon the Salvation Army at Chipping Norton by a gang of persons known there by the name of the "Skeleton Army," who form processions behind a coffin and attack the Salvationists on their way to their place of meeting; if he is aware that on Saturday, 10th March, a Salvationist named Betteridge and several women were knocked down and indecently assaulted in the open streets, and that similar scenes took place on Sunday 11th March and Monday 12th March; if he is aware that the Salvation Army have repeatedly appealed to the police for protection, and been refused, the police standing by declining to interfere when called upon, and that a special appeal to Captain Owen, the Superintendent of the County Police, was made by the Salvationist leaders for protection against 259 the Skeleton Army on the 19th instant, to which he replied on the 21st, refusing to interfere; and, will he at once instruct Captain Owen to afford to these persons the protection against ill-treatment?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I referred the written statement which the hon. Member sent me on this subject to the Chief Constable of Oxfordshire, who informs me that the facts therein alleged are greatly exaggerated. The Superintendent of Police at Norton states that if the assaults referred to have taken place it has not been in view of the police. Neither himself nor any of the police under him have been asked to take anyone into custody. I do not gather from the letter of the Chief Constable of the 21st instant that he refused to interfere; but he said it was not possible for him to provide a police guard for the processionists. He informs me that he has only four men at Norton; and he cannot, without great inconvenience to the rest of the county, provide more. If there is any ground for saying that the Chief Constable has been remiss in his duty, complaint should be made to the Justices in Quarter Sessions, under whose authority he acts.