§ MR. STEADMAN (Tower Hamlets, Stepney)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will inform the House what steps he is taking to inquire into the deadly use of yellow phosphorus in the matchmaking trade; and, if so, will he report the result of such inquiries at the earliest opportunity?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTThe steps taken are very briefly these. Every match factory in the country has been specially visited, and reported on by the factory inspectors; many of them also, as far as the employment of women is concerned, by the lady inspectors. Inquiries are being made through the Foreign Office as to the measures adopted and results obtained in foreign countries. Further, the question is being investigated, on the scientific side, by two distinguished experts, Dr. Oliver and Dr. Thorpe, the former of whom has already visited the chief match factories in France and made a special Report; and from the dental point of view by Dr. George Cunningham, dental surgeon to the London Hospital, who has already made a preliminary Report, and whom I propose to send to France to continue 1198 his inquiries in the French manufactories. I shall, as soon as possible, communicate to the House the result of these investigations.