§ SIR JOHN COLOMB (Tower Hamlets, Bow)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been recently drawn to the foul condition of the River Lee, and to the fact that a boy's death from typhoid fever has been ascribed as the result of bathing in this pestilential water; whether the West Ham Corporation or the Lee Conservancy, or both, are to blame; and whether he will at once take steps necessary to enforce the abatement of a great nuisance?
§ * THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (MR.RITCHIE, Tower Hamlets, St. George's)The Local Government Board yesterday received a letter from the Poplar Board of Works containing a statement to the effect of that in the first part of my hon. Friend's question, but I have no further information as to the facts. I am not in a position to say whether the West Ham Corporation or the Lee Conservancy, or both, are to blame. In the letter of the Poplar Board of Works it is said that the West Ham Corporation are allowing their sewage to flow into the river at all states of the tide, and I will cause inquiries to be made as to this.