§ MR. E. H. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether instructions are given to the Metropolitan Police that, when a constable has a warrant to arrest, or is about to arrest, a person on his own authority, or has a person in custody for a crime, it is wrong to question such person touching the crime of which, he is accused?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolYes, Sir; such are the general instructions given to the police, but it is obviously impossible to prohibit all questioning, before arrest. Any questions, 1105 however, which would approach to the holding out an inducement to the person to make a confession are prohibited altogether.
§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will consider the advisability of paying the boot money to the members of the Metropolitan Police Force in two payments of 13s. yearly, instead of by weekly 6d. payments, since the proposed method of payment, coupled with the date upon which it is to commence, and the date upon which the last issue of boots is to take place, will cause each constable to lose 13s. during his term of service?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYNo, Sir; I am not prepared to reconsider this arrangement. There will be no such less as the hon. Member supposes. The boots which each constable will have in his possession on the 1st October will be good for several months to come, but even if he has to buy himself a pair before his weekly allowances have reached the sum of 13s., his loss, if it can be called one, will be more than counterbalanced by his gain under another provision of the new arrangement, of which the hon. Member appears to be unaware. It is this. Under the existing, order of things, the boots of a constable, are not his property but the Receiver's, and on promotion or retirement he has to restore two serviceable pairs to the Receiver, or pay a sum of money which is never less than 10s. and may be a good deal more. By the new arrangement, the men will be given absolutely the boots in their possession on the 1st October, and will be relieved of the liability, which as I have explained, attaches to them on promotion or retirement. I may add that all other allowances in the Force for articles of clothing are made by weekly payments, and never by money in advance, and no hardship has ever been felt, and that the exact terms of the new arrangement were put before the anon last year, who decided for it by a large majority. I am fully satisfied, as is the Commissioner, that the new arrangement is beneficial to the men, as it was intended to be.
§ CAPTAIN NORTONWill the right hon. Gentleman be prepared to take the opinion of the constables upon the point?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThat is what I have done.