§ MR. BARLOW (Somerset, Frome)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the recent inquest held by the Coroner, Mr. Churton, in Crewe, on the exhumed body of a child, and to the remarks of the Coroner censuring the police, and stating that he could not understand why the order for exhumation had been made; whether he is aware that (as stated in Truth this week) Mr. Churton had himself signed the order for exhuming the body, after having received evidence to justify this course; that the reason for so doing was that the doctor who signed the certificate of death had not seen the child till after it was dead; that the child was attended by an unqualified medical assistant in the employ of another doctor; what was the name of the doctor who signed the certificate; and whether he will cause a 996 full inquiry to be made of the police and the Coroner as to the facts of the case, and, if necessary, bring them to the notice of the Registrar General?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.My attention has been called to this case, but the Coroner states that the strong observations made by him at the inquest were not intended as a censure on the police, nor did he say that he could not understand why the order for exhumation had been made, for he had signed the order himself, considering that the information before him justified that course. That information comprised the matters stated in the second paragraph of the question. The doctor who signed the certificate was Dr. Atkinson. I have inquired both of the police and the Coroner. The police are free from blame in the matter. The Coroner is the person responsible for ordering the exhumation. His censure was apparently aimed at persons who had unreasonably found in the circumstances cause for suspicion. Whether the facts correctly stated in the second paragraph of the question, as to the manner in which the death was certified, show a breach of the Registration Laws, I am unable to say. After the publicity which has been given to the case by my hon. Friend's question, the Registrar General and the Local Government Board, to whose Departments such matters belong, will, no doubt, consider whether the requirements of the law were complied with.