§ MR. FORWOOD (Lancashire, Ormskirk)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the prosecution of Wishart for conspiracy and fraud at the present Liverpool Assizes was conducted on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions; and, if so, whether that officer took up the case by direction of the Secretary of State or the Attorney General; whether the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Hopwood, Q.C., M.P., acted in accordance with any instructions received from the Director of Public Prosecutions when he accepted a plea of guilty for conspiracy and offered no evidence on the charges of fraud; if his attention has been called to the remarks of Mr. Justice Day that a great injustice had been done by offering no evidence for the Crown on the charges of fraud, which precluded him from passing a sentence of penal servitude on a person occupying a good position in society, which he would have had to award to a poor man driven by want to commit a crime of far less magnitude; whether he is aware that the extent of Wishart's frauds amounted to £60,000; and whether he intends to take any steps in the matter?
§ MR. ASQUITHI am informed by the Director of Public Prosecutions that neither he nor any of his agents conducted, or have any knowledge of, the case referred to by the right hon. Gentleman.