§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is prepared to grant a licence for the practice of experiments on the bodies of living animals to the new Institute of Preventive Medicine on the Thames Embankment at Chelsea; whether he is aware that a large building, called the animal house, is in course of construction at this Institute, where the victims of vivisection experiments are to be kept while awaiting operation and in various stages of their sufferings, and that a crematorium is also in course of construction for the burning of the bodies of animals when destroyed by the vivisector's experiments; whether he is aware that the Chelsea Guardians have passed a resolution deprecating the granting of this licence, and that a number of the occupants of the flats on the Embankment have protested against the establishment of this Institute in the locality, and have given notice to their landlords that they will leave their flats the moment it is established; and whether, having regard to the fact that a petition, with 183,607 signatures, was presented to the right hon. Gentleman deprecating, on behalf of the inhabitants of Chelsea, the practice of vivisection in their midst, he will withhold his assent to the licensed practice of vivisection in Chelsea?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir M. W. RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolI have already stated in this House that, after full consideration of every aspect of the Question and of the representations to which the hon. Member refers, I have not thought it possible to refuse the transfer of the registration of the Institute from their present buildings to the new premises in Grosvenor Road. I have satisfied myself that the arrangements at the new premises are perfectly suitable for the purpose for which they are registered. Of course, no painful experiments can be made there until the person wishing to perform them has been properly licensed by me to do so.