§ MR. S. SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to a statement made in The British Medical Journal that "massage shops" are in many cases used for improper purposes; whether this subject has attracted the attention of the police; whether, quite recently, one of the best known of these places has been raided and stopped; and whether the Government proposed to take any 664 steps for the registration of massage shops?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.I have read the article referred to. Except by the statements in that article, the attention of the police has not been called to the subject. There is no truth in the statement that the police have raided and stopped one of these places. The matter has been, and is being, carefully investigated, but up to the present no sufficient evidence has been forthcoming to warrant police action, or to show the necessity of an amendment of the law.