§ MR. JAMES O'CONNOR (Wicklow, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that on Monday, the 3rd instant, a man appeared before the magistrate in the South Western Court and complained that his two sons, on the completion of their time in an industrial school, had been drafted into the Army without his knowledge or consent, and that he wished to bring them up to his own trade; whether he can state upon whose order the boys have been transferred from the industrial school to the Army, in what regiment have they been enrolled, and what are their respective ages.
§ MR. RITCHIEThe boys referred to enlisted from the school, with their own consent, at the ages of 14½ and 15½ respectively, in the band of the 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment. This was done under the powers conferred upon the managers of the school by Section 1 of the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act, 1891. I find that the father has never contributed anything towards the maintenance of the boys in the school, in spite of proceedings taken against him; and I am of opinion that he has no claims to consideration, and that the enlistment is in the best interests of the boys.