§ MR. BUCHANAN (A berdeenshire, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether serious complaints have reached the Home Office with regard to the management of the Retreat for Inebriates at Old Park Hall, Walsall; (2) whether his attention has been directed to a recent case in which the licensee, having received a patient under the Act, employed him as his coachman, and knowingly allowed him on several occasions to put up his horse at a public-house; and (3) whether, for this and other contraventions of the Rules for licensed retreats issued by the Home Office, he will prosecute the 1257 licensee, or oppose the renewal of his licence, or take such steps as will prevent the recurrence of such grave irregularities in the future?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe answer to the first two paragraphs is in the affirmative. I have forwarded the papers to the Local Authority, with whom the power of renewing the licence rests, as a case well deserving their attention.