§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that at Ainsdale, a suburb of Southdale, where a demand has been made for free education, the Education Department has answered that there are free places in the Roman Catholic school, and that the children must go there; and whether he sees any way by which the conscientious objections of Protestant parents to send their children to Roman Catholic schools could be obviated?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. ACLAND,) York, W.R., RotherhamWith reference to this case, I have already stated twice in the House, on the 17th March, in reply to the hon. Member for Leicester, and again on the 21st March, in reply to the hon. Member for North Islington, that the Education Acts make no distinction between Roman Catholic and other schools so long as they are Public Elementary Schools, and that it is not possible, under the law as it stands, to compel the provision of further school accommodation in a district where the provision made by existing Public Elementary Schools is already sufficient.