§ MR. MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been drawn to the reports in The Daily Chronicle newspaper of 15th, 21st, and 28th December, to the paper on "Deadly Poisonous Trades" in The Fortnightly Review of February, 1893, wherein the writer alleges that 64 cases of deaths from lead poisoning occurred in one factory alone in six months, and to the article entitled "Wanton Waste of Life" in The Whitehall Review of the 4th February; and what steps the Government intend to take to investigate and, if possible, prevent this loss of life in the white lead factories?
§ MR. ASQUITHThis matter has for some time engaged my attention. The facts require further elucidation; and, with the co-operation of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, I have arranged for the institution of an exhaustive inquiry into the case, both in its industrial and in its sanitary aspects.