§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the Report of a Commission, under the presidency of Mr. Justice Scott, Judicial Adviser to the Khedive, appointed to inquire into the condition of prisons in Egypt, in which it is stated that prisoners, while in gaol, are fed by their relatives, and only those who are without relatives, or deserted by them, are given a daily ration of bread to keep them from starving; whether the Director of Egyptian Prisons is an Englishman, and the control of this administration is in British hands; and whether Her Majesty's Government will take steps to bring the subject to the notice of Her Majesty's Agent and Consul General with a view to remedying this state of affairs, and assimilating the prison system of Egypt to that of civilised countries elsewhere?
§ SIR E. GREYA Commission appointed to consider the best means of relieving the overcrowded condition of the Provincial gaols reported to the Egyptian Government in March, 1892. In their Report exception was taken to the system by which the friends of prisoners are allowed to provide them with food, and it was recommended that prisoners who are poor should be fed by the State, and that the measure should be extended to all prisoners alike as soon as the work done in the prisons should produce sufficient funds to meet this expense. Lord Cromer reported at the time that the adoption of this suggestion had been adjourned by the Council of Ministers for future consideration; but Her Majesty's Government have received no further information on the subject beyond what is contained in Lord Cromer's Report published in Egypt No. 3, 1893, page 23. The Inspector General of Egyptian Prisons is Dr. Crookshank, who was a Member of the 512 Commission, and will, no doubt, carry out such reforms as the Egyptian Government may sanction.