§ MR. E. H. BAYLEY (Camberwell, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that 10 cases of small-pox have occurred at the Salvation Army Shelter in the Blackfriars Road, the persons affected having afterwards walked through the streets to various hospitals; and whether, in view of the possibility of cholera being spread through these "shelters," he will consider the advisability of bringing them under the Common Lodging House Acts?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. H. H. FOWLER,) Wolverhampton, E.I am aware that cases of small-pox have occurred at the Salvation Army Shelter in Blackfriars Road; but I am assured that, in any cases where the patients have been certified as suffering from that disease, they have been removed to hospital in ambulances. The provisions of the Public Health (London) Act with reference to overcrowding and the sanitary condition of premises apply to these shelters in like manner as to any other house used as a dwelling. As my hon. Friend is probably aware, proceedings were recently instituted in the case of the shelter to which he alludes, and a penalty was imposed in consequence of persons having been admitted after a case of small-pox had occurred there before the premises had been disinfected to the satisfaction of a legally-qualified medical practitioner. I cannot, at present, give any undertaking to propose the legislation suggested.