§ * Mr. SOAMESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been called to the action of the Beccles bench of magistrates in refusing certificates of exemption from vaccination for their children to C. E. Parnell and D. G. Reeve on the 21st March, although both applicants stated that they had a conscientious objection to vaccination; whether he is aware that the same magistrates require applicants for such exemption to attend 1188 at the magistrates' clerk's office before hand to give notice of their intention to apply to the magistrates for exemption, and also require them to provide themselves with legal certificates of the births of their children; and will he state what steps he proposes to take in the matter.
§ MR. GEORGE WHITE (Norfolk, N.W.)I beg also to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of Edward Pratt, of Gayton, who applied on two occasions, viz., on 3rd and 17th March, to the bench of magistrates at Grimstone, Norfolk, for a vaccination exemption certificate for his child, and was on both occasions refused, although he declared his conscientious conviction that his child would be injured by the operation; and, seeing that the same bench refused another applicant on 7th April, whether he will give instructions for the bench to grant the exemptions provided by the Vaccination Act, so that these parents may be saved from the trouble and expense of having to meet a prosecution.
§ * The SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. RITCHIE, Croydon)Even assuming that the facts of the eases are precisely as stated in the Questions, I have no power to take any stops in the matter.