§ MR. WHITMORE (Chelsea)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will consider the practicability of distributing amongst the pensioners of the 520 Royal Hospitals at Chelsea and Kilmainham the balance now on hand of the tobacco which has been seized as contraband.
(Answered by Mr. Victor Cavendish.) I regret that it is not possible to adopt this suggestion. The grant of seized tobacco is confined in the first instance to cases where the tobacco would otherwise be charged upon the Votes. This covers not only the Key and Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, but also the Criminal Lunatic Asylums at Broadmoor, Dundrum, and Perth. Any surplus not needed for these institutions is given, under an arrangement made in 1893, to troops going on foreign service.