§ MR. NUSSEY (Pontefract)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is now able to state the result of his consideration of the claims to compensation arising out of the Featherstone Riots, and give 577 the names of those who are to receive such compensation, and the amounts and date when the same is likely to be paid? The hon. Member also asked as to the accuracy of the statements in the papers on the subject.
§ MR. ASQUITHThe papers have not accurately stated the facts. I have been for some weeks in communication with my hon. Friend the Member for the Osgoldcross Division, and with his assistance (to which I am much indebted for the necessary local information) I have arranged the amount and the apportionment of the allowances which I intimated some time ago that the Government hoped to be able to make. I shall be happy to supply my hon. Friend privately with the details. The general result of the arrangement is that £100 will be paid to the families of each of the two men who were killed, and a further sum of £200 will be distributed among nine other men, who were more or less seriously wounded, and as to whom it has been established to my satisfaction that they took no part in the riotous proceedings which led to and justified the action of the soldiers.