§ MR. H. C. STEPHENS (Middlesex, Hornsey)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, having regard to the circumstances connected with the recent murder at Hornsey, he will consider if it is desirable to offer a reward for the discovery of the murderer; and, whether, in consequence of the conviction held in the locality in which the murder took place that there 817 is an insufficiency of police protection, he will take steps with the object of affording greater security to the inhabitants of that district?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYI entirely sympathise with the object which the hon. Member has in view, but the difficulties of protecting country districts and houses situated with woods and fields behind them, as was the house at which this crime was committed, are so great that no force of police, however large, could guarantee complete security. The Commissioner of Police will, however, not hesitate to apply for additional men for this locality if he finds them necessary. I am not prepared to depart from what has been the settled practice of the Home Office for many years past, to decline to offer a reward for information in cases like the present.