§ MR. WHITTAKER (Yorkshire, W.R., Spen Valley)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the statements made at Cardiff by an owner of public-houses in the course of his public examination in bankruptcy, in which he disclosed certain financial transactions and relations between himself and two justices of the peace for the Division of Dinas Powis, in the county of Glamorgan; whether he is aware that those justices had acted and voted at general annual licensing meetings at which applications were made for various licences in which the said bankrupt was interested, and that on 22nd December last the justices of the peace for the said Division of Dinas Powis, having been called together to consider the disclosures made and the action of their two colleagues in thus acting and voting, passed a resolution condemning such conduct, and whether any steps have been taken or will be taken by the Lord Chancellor to remove from the bench the two justices whose conduct has been thus formally censured by their colleagues.
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. RITCHIE, Croydon)I have had this matter brought before me, and have no reason to doubt that the facts are as stated. As my hon. friend is aware, the question in the last paragraph is one which concerns the Lord Chancellor, under whose notice the matter has, as I understand, already come.