§ MR. CLANCYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the case of John Daly and the other treason-felony prisoners now confined in Portland, whether he has considered the question of releasing them in connection with the case of the Walsall Anarchists now also in prison; and whether it is a fact that the Walsall prisoners were convicted of and sentenced for the same crime as that for which John Daly and the other prisoners referred to were sentenced, though convicted only of treason-felony, and that, while the severest sentences in the former case did not exceed 10 years' penal servitude, the sentences in the latter case were all, or nearly all, sentences of penal servitude for life; and, if so, and in view of the fact that if John Daly and his fellow-prisoners had been sentenced only to the same term of penal servitude as that meted out to the Walsall prisoners they would be now entitled to their discharge, be will consider their whole case afresh with a view to their release?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe hon. Member compels me to repeat an answer which I gave to one of his colleagues a few days ago. As I stated then, each case must be judged upon its own merits and with reference to its own circumstances; and for reasons which I explained earlier in 1358 the Session, and with a full knowledge of the case to which the hon. Member refers, I am of opinion that the time has not come when I can interfere with any of these sentences.
§ MR. CLANCYIs the statement in the last part of the question correct? Would not these convicts, if they had had the same terms of imprisonment as the Walsall men, have now become entitled to their discharge?
§ MR. ASQUITHCertainly, but then the sentences were not the same.