§ MR. SEDDON (Lancashire, Newton)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will inquire into the treatment of two female members of the Salvation Army by the Widnes police, who forced them to wash in the presence of three police officers, notwithstanding protests made by the women.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) On making inquiry into this matter I am informed by the chief constable that the detention of these prisoners in police cells was due to their having declined to surrender themselves at the police station at a time when they might have been taken straight to prison. It is true that when at the police station they washed their hands and faces in the presence of two constables; but they made no complaint or protest about this, but, on the contrary, thanked the police for the consideration that had been shown them.