§ MR. WOOTTON ISAACSONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether his attention has been drawn to the number of fatal accidents which have recently occurred to women who have descended from balloons in parachutes; (2) and, whether he will issue an order making it illegal for any performance to take place in future by which the lives of the performers are risked by these senseless exhibitions?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. W. RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolI have seen in the newspapers reports of the accidents referred to. I can only repeat what has been more than once stated in this House by my predecessors, that, however foolish and degrading such exhibitions as the hon. Member mentions may be, there is no power to interfere with them by law, except in the case of children under 14.