§ MR. PATRICK M'HUGHI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Mr. Cecil Rhodes had on Saturday afternoon a long private interview with two convicts, Sir John Willoughby and Major White, now undergoing a term of imprisonment in Holloway Prison; and whether, seeing that private interviews are not allowed under the prison rules to Irish treason-felony prisoners now confined in English gaols and their friends, will he explain why this privilege was granted to the prisoners in Holloway?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYIt is the case that Mr. Rhodes had an interview with the two prisoners named. The visit lasted an hour, but was not, as suggested in the Question, of a private nature, being both in the sight and in the hearing of a prison officer. Permission for the visit was given by the Visiting Committee of the prison, who have, under the prison rules, in the case of first-class misdemeanants, the power of prolonging the period of a visit or allowing additional visits as they may deem advisable.