§ DR. MACNAMARA (Camberwell, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, under the Order and Circular on the Feeding of Hungry Children, any cost incurred by London boards of guardians will be a charge on the parish Poor Law fund or on the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. GERALD BALFOUR, Leeds, Central)The cost of relief given by a board of guardians in London is in all cases defrayed in the first instance out of their own funds; but the enactments relating to the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund provide that certain payments shall be paid to them out of that fund in respect of expenses which they have incurred for purposes therein specified. Relief of the kind mentioned in the Question would not in general come within these enactments, and consequently no payment could be made out of the fund in respect of it.
§ DR. MACNAMARAWill the Government consider the desirability of making the change in the law necessary to place the expenditure on the Common Fund?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI can give no pledge.