§ MR. LEWIS (Flint Boroughs)On behalf of the hon. Member for Flintshire, I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the Government will take into practical consideration the special hardships which long-term European prisoners now suffer in India owing to their inability to bear the climatical effects under gaol conditions, as compared with the native prisoners around them; and whether the Government will locate this particular class in some prison in the hill districts.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThis question has been carefully considered, but in view of the small numbers of the class of prisoners to whom it refers, and of the great expense and other disadvantages of providing separate gaols for them, it has been decided to leave matters as they are; more especially as the accommodation provided for European prisoners has been very favourably reported upon by expert authorities. It should also be remembered that the Courts, in sentencing Europeans, take into consideration the effects of 1043 limate, and that such prisoners, if their health requires it, can be transferred to the United Kingdom under an Act of 1884.