§ MR. O'GRADYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a petition bearing date 26th May, 1906, addressed to the Home Office by a debtor prisoner named John Yallop, imprisoned at Wormwood Scrubbs, stating that the debtor prisoners were being subjected to solitary confinement and were being supplied with food unfit for consumption, was received at the Home Office; if so, whether any inquiries were made into the matter, and with what result; and, if the petition was not received, whether the prison officials acted in accordance with the prison regulations in not forwarding it.
§ *MR. GLADSTONEThis prisoner on 26th May applied to send a private letter to me at the House of Commons. In accordance with the rules, this was refused, but he was allowed instead to petition. I subsequently received from him three petitions, but they contained no complaint of solitary confinement or of bad food. The complaints he has made on these points since his release have been inquired into and I find they are without foundation.