MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he will state whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Government workhouse at Madras is located within the precincts of the Presidency gaol; will he state how many inmates of the said workhouse have absconded during each of the last three years; in what other places in India the workhouse is within the gaol precincts; and whether the Government will take steps clearly to separate the unfortunate from the criminal class of the population in India.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingThe Government workhouse at Madras, which is intended for the reception of persons of European extraction; judicially declared to be vagrants under the European Vagrancy Act, 1874, was removed to the Penitentiary in December, 1900. I have no information as to the number of vagrants who have absconded from the workhouse during the past three years. I believe that at Bombay also the workhouse is located within the Government Penitentiary; at other provincial capitals, so far as I am aware, the workhouse is separate from the gaol. I propose to address the Government of India on the subject.