ADMIRAL FIELD (Sussex, Eastbourne)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, whether the attention of the Secretary of State for War has been called to the Report on "Military Prisons" of 1894–5, relative to the very unsatisfactory condition of the prison at Mauritius, as detailed in pages 4 of both Reports, and stated also 409 to have been mentioned in previous Reports without any remedy being applied, from which it appears that the water supply is bad, and that all the warders and their families have been invalided home from fever, except one; whether the General Officer Commanding has recommended that prisoners sentenced to 42 days should be sent to the civil prison, if suitable arrangements can be made; whether he has also observed that the Report of the Medical Officer, at pages 44 and 48 of the respective Reports, speaks in strong terms of condemnation of the swampy sites, resulting in constant malarial fevers to the great injury of the health of the warders and others who are compelled to live on the ground floor; and, whether anything has been done to remedy the state of things complained of in the said Reports of the Inspector General?
§ * MR. BRODRICKThe provision of a military prison on a more healthy site in Mauritius is one of the services included in the new loan for military works, and it will be commenced as soon as funds are voted by the House. Meanwhile, the prison has been converted into a provost prison, which has enabled the warders to be withdrawn from their unhealthy quarters. The water used is boiled and filtered. A recommendation was made that prisoners with sentences of a certain length should be sent to the civil prison, but satisfactory arrangements to that effect could not be made.