§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Homo Department whether he is aware that a warrant for the arrest of Mr. R. H. Kinchant, the late Chief Constable for Warwickshire, was issued in May, 1892, in consequence of his failure to appear at the adjourned examination on his bankruptcy; whether it has been brought to his notice that, upon Mr. Kinchant's application for a pension, the Standing Joint Committee of the Warwickshire County Council passed resolutions in July, 1892, and January, 1893, that it could not be granted until he submitted himself for medical examination to Dr. Outline Rankin, of Leamington; and that recently Mr. Kinchant left Portugal, where he has been living to evade the execution of the warrant, and on the 3rd April, 1893, was examined at No. 46, Russell Terrace, Leamington, by Dr. Guthrie Rankin, in order to comply with the resolution of the Standing Joint Committee and secure the payment of his pension; and whether he will make inquiries and state the circumstances under which Mr. Kinchant was allowed to leave Leamington and this country without the warrant for his arrest being executed?
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.Mr. Kinchant resigned the office of Chief Constable on the ground of ill-health, and after 22 years' approved service, on the 7th December, 1891. He was granted a superannuation pension of £192 a year by a resolution of the Standing Joint Committee, passed on the 18th January, 1892. The subsequent facts are correctly stated in the first and second paragraphs of the question, except that the resolution referred to in the second paragraph were resolutions passed in pursuance of Section 5 (3) of the Police Act, 1890, declining to make further payments in respect of the pension until Mr. Kinchant had submitted himself for further medical examination. In answer to the third paragraph, I am informed by the Standing Joint Committee that 550 neither the police authority nor any county official was aware that Mr. Kinchant intended to comply, or had complied, with the requirement of the Committee, that he should submit himself for medical examination. It is to be observed that the warrant issued for his arrest was not founded on any criminal charge. I have suggested to the Committee that, under the circumstances, they should either decline to make any further payment, or should exercise their power under the Statute of requiring Mr. Kinchant again to submit himself for medical examination. I understand that the Committee have adopted the second alteration, and resolved yesterday that before any further payment is made, Mr. Kinchant should be required to attend for examination before two medical practitioners at Warwick on June 12.