§ MR. D. THOMAS (Merthyr Tydvil)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to a letter in the South Wales Daily News, of 21st April last, headed "The Officials of our Prisons," in which it is stated that an official in a Glamorganshire prison refused to allow a woman, when visiting her son there, to speak to him in Welsh, the language she habitually used, and the only one she properly understood; and whether such official was acting in accordance with the regulations of Swansea Gaol, the prison referred to?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have not seen the letter in question; but I am in formed by the Prison Commissioners that the prisoner opened the conversation in English, and on the woman replying in Welsh, the officer in charge asked if she could not speak English, and on being informed that she could, requested her to do so. There are no special regulations on this subject beyond the rule that requires visits to prisoners to take place in the presence of an officer.