§ MR. WILLIAM ABRAHAM (Cork County, N. E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state by whose direction, and under what authority, a police sergeant called on the proprietor of the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow, last Wednesday, prior to the holding of a public meeting to be addressed from the windows of the hotel in connection with the forthcoming election for district councillors, and warned him that if any speeches were so delivered the renewal of his licence would be opposed; will he state whether it is intended to institute proceedings against any one of the speakers for language used at the meeting; and, seeing that it is the ordinary practice to address public meetings of electors from hotel windows during contested elections, will instructions be given to the police in Mallow 384 not to interfere with the holding of such meetings during the further progress of this election.
§ MR. WYNDHAMThere has been no interference with meetings addressed from the windows of this hotel, nor is it intended to take proceedings against any of the speakers. Language of a reprehensible kind was used by some of the speakers, directed against local magistrates. The police merely gave notice to the owner lest he might be unwittingly betrayed into allowing licensed premises so to be used that they would feel justified in opposing, the renewal of his licence.