§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the result of his further inquiry into the attack by a number of roughs upon some Irish harvesters near the Red Lion, Potter's Bar, on the 21st of July; whether he is now aware that the hut in the field in which these Irish haymakers were asleep when arrested at 2 o'clock on the following Sunday morning was their usual sleeping place assigned to them by their employer, and that they were not in the hut for the purpose of concealment from the police; whether, having regard to the statement made by the police that these Irishmen were not in bed when arrested, but lying on hay on the floor, he is aware that it is not the practice of English farmers who engage Irishmen for haymaking to provide them with spring mattresses or feather beds, but with a supply of hay or straw on which to sleep; whether any charge has yet been made against the Englishmen who attacked these Irish harvesters; whether it is proposed to act upon the suggestion of the Chairman of the Court, and take evidence of the landlord of the Red Lion; and whether the fine and costs imposed upon Patrick Shield, who was not present during the disturbance, but unwell in the hut in the field, will be remitted?
§ MR. ASQUITHI have had a full inquiry made into this matter. It is true that the hut in which one of the men was arrested was their usual sleeping place. I regret that the information supplied to me and given by me to the House the other day upon this point was not more explicit, but it was not intended to suggest that the man was in the hut for the purpose of concealing himself from the police. As to the 4th and 5th paragraphs have had a statement taken from Mr. Stallabran, the landlord of the Red Lion, and all the facts have been carefully investigated. Mr. Stallabran states as follows:—
The house was closed some few minutes before o'clock on Saturday, 21st July, and everyone went out peaceably. No disturbance whatever 986 took place in my house during the evening, and no cause for any disturbance arose. I am quite ready to go before any Magistrate, but I do not think I could throw any light on the subject, as the disturbance took place after my house was closed and I was not present. Some few minutes after 11 o'clock I heard a disturbance going on about 50 yards from my house in the direction of Mr. Read's farm. I went out of my private entrance and saw police disperse the crowd, who went away in various directions; some quarter of an hour afterwards I heard shouting some distance off, but I did not go down, but came indoors and went to bed, and saw no more of the affair. I do not know any of the men, and cannot say whether the man Patrick Shields was in my house on the night in question or not.There is no satisfactory evidence to show who was responsible for the original disturbance, and no proceedings could be taken in respect of it with any prospect of success. The men in question were arrested for stoning and attacking the police. It does not appear to be true that Shields was unwell. His employer, Mr. Reid, states that he was not ill on the day in question, but at his work as usual. He was identified as being present, and taking part in the attack on the police, and I cannot upon the materials before me interfere with the conclusion come to by the Magistrates. I will take this opportunity of answering the supplemental question put the other day by the how and learned Member for North Louth (Mr. T. M. Healy) with regard to an attack on some Irish labourers in Lancashire. I have received a full Report from the Lancashire police on the subject, and it appears that on the 24th of June a very serious and most disgraceful attack was made upon a body of Irishmen in a house upon a farm at Altcar. The assailants set fire to the house in which the men were at the time, and assaulted with pitchforks, heavy sticks and bars of iron every Irishman they could find. I am glad to say that some five or six of the ringleaders were identified and taken into custody and indicted at the Assizes, where they pleaded guilty. They have since been sentenced, one to five years' penal servitude; another to three years; another to 15 months, another to 12 months, and another to six mouths, and that, I think, is a satisfactory proof that English Juries and English Judges are quite prepared to enforce the law impartially and stringently wherever a breach of it takes 987 place, no matter whom the lawbreakers may be.
§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether any effort will be made to punish the Englishmen who attacked the Irishmen at Potter's Bar?
§ MR. ASQUITHWhat I said was that there was no satisfactory evidence to show how the disturbance began or who were the aggressors or who the attacked party. The four men punished were punished not for taking part in the disturbance, but because that afterwards when the police came to disperse the crowd they attacked and stoned the police.
§ MR. WEIRWere they punished simply because they were Irishmen? If they had been Englishmen would they not have escaped?
§ MR. ASQUITHNo, Sir.
§ MR. WEIRasked whether the Justices were justified in sending one of the men to gaol for 21 days, seeing that the police intimated that the man was found in his usual sleeping place in the hut in the field.
§ MR. ASQUITHMy hon. Friend is not quite accurate. The man was sentenced to 21 days for threatening the police with a knife. I have made a most careful investigation into the matter, and I cannot discover that there was any question of Englishmen or Irishmen in the matter. If there had been, no censure would be too great. The man arrested in the hut was identified, on evidence which the Magistrates thought satisfactory, of having been one of those who attacked the police.
MR. T. M. HEALYMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he considers the attempt, partially successful, to roast a whole number of Irishmen in some cabin has been fairly dealt with by the sentences he has read out?
§ MR. ASQUITHIt seems to me that the sentences are adequate.
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!