§ SIR R. TEMPLE (Surrey, Kingston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the remarks of Mr. Justice Hawkins in his summing-up in the case of "Zierenberg v. Labouchere," on Wednesday last; whether he 1764 is aware that at the present moment there are a large number of women incarcerated in Zeirenberg's Home; whether he will take any steps to secure for them their liberty if they should wish to be free; whether he has observed that it was deposed in evidence how women who had escaped from durance from the Home were taken back there by the police, and that the Judge said that this was illegal; and whether he can say by whose orders the police acted thus?
§ MR. ASQUITHMy attention has been called to the learned Judge's remarks. I am not aware whether there are any women at present in this place. If there are, they are all entitled to come out when they please; and if there is reason to suspect that any of them are being detained against their will, it is open to those who know the facts to apply for a writ of habeas corpus and obtain their release. As to the action of the police, I have made inquiries, and find that it is a mistake to suppose that any escaped inmates have been taken back by the police in custody. One woman was seen by a policeman getting over a wall into the street, and on her telling him that she had escaped from the Home, he took her to the house to make inquiries. The matron said she was an inmate, but she refused to go inside, and was not detained or constrained in any way. I am making further inquiries as to this place and its inmates, and I shall do all that I legally can to prevent abuse.