§ MR. H. J. WILSONTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware Mr. Liuvee Harris, sometime resident in Jersey and Guernsey, was charged at Weymouth with stealing a boy whom he had adopted and maintained for twelve months with the full consent of the parents, and although the justices refused to entertain the charge was subsequently arrested on a warrant of the jurats of Guernsey, where he was taken in custody and sentenced to three months imprisonment; whether he will consider the propriety of repealing the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, as regards the Channel Islands, and leave such cases to the operation of the Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881; and whether he will recommend compensation to Mr. Harris for the imprisonment he has undergone.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Ritchie.) I have no reason to think that Mr Harris was wrongly convicted, nor is this a case in which the suggestion of compensation could be entertained. I cannot undertake to legislate in the direction desired.