MR. MAC NEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has yet given effect to the promise made last year to the honourable Member for Camborne, that he would consider and try how far the suggestion of the honourable Member could be carried out for covering the walls of prison cells with a coloured wash of blue or pink, instead of the ordinary whitewash which is known to be injurious to the eye-sight; and, if not, whether he will now cause the experiment to be made, having regard to the fact that the sight of many prisoners has been very seriously impaired by the glare of the whitewashed walls of their cells?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI am informed by the Chairman of the Prison Commissioners that he is not aware of the alleged fact that the sight of many prisoners is impaired by the glare of the whitewashed cells. The Medical Inspector in his last Report gives evidence to the contrary. He says that perhaps the most striking feature of the medical statistics is the proof which they afford of the immunity of prisoners from, among others things, ophthalmia. If the hon. Member will furnish me with names and particulars of any prisoner whose eyesight he knows to have been affected in this manner I will have full inquiry made.
MR. MAC NEILLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that Mr. Wilfrid Blunt in his evidence at Dublin stated that his eyesight was impaired by this cause? I heard him say so myself.
§ MR. MATTHEWSI did not read Mr. Blunt's evidence.