§ COLONEL SAUNDERSON (Armagh, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a letter was addressed by Sir Antony Mac Donnell, dated 31st March 1904 to the hon. Member for East Kerry, who communicated its 533 contents to a meeting of the East Kerry Executive of the United Irish League, in which Sir Antony MacDonnell stated that the Congested Districts Board consented to grant as a matter of grace and compassion the sum of £500 to the surviving representatives of two tenants named John Lyne and Patrick Cronin, who had been evicted by the Land Commission for non-payment of their instalments in the year 1890; and, if so, whether he can state out of what fund and under what statute such money had been offered.
§ MR. WYNDHAMYes, Sir. The letter was written by my instruction, given in pursuance of a decision arrived at by the Congested Districts Board. The Board acted under the Act of 1891 and amending Acts, which invest them with all the powers of a landlord.