§ DR. COOPER (Southwark, Bermondsey)To ask the hon. Member for the Elland Division of Yorkshire, as representing the Charity Commissioners, whether the Commissioners' attention 7 has been called to the fact that the members of the Committees of the City Corporation are allowed at each sitting a half-crown lunch, a fixed sum also being allowed for drink; that the cost of these luncheons amounted to£3,000 or£4,000 a year; that this money is voted out of a fund known as the City Cash, the proceeds of bequests made long ago; whether the Commissioners have power to inquire as to the purpose to which the income of old bequests is at present applied; whether, if the intentions of the donors cannot be carried out, the Commissioners can require a scheme to be drawn up devoting the income to the public good; whether the Commissioners have approved of any scheme allowing the income of these City bequests to be spent in refreshments; and, if not, will the Commissioners at once make inquiry and consider the advisability of devoting the income derived from these bequests to some useful public purpose.
(Answered by Mr. Trevelyan.) The Commissioners understand that the term "the City's cash" is applied to property belonging to the Corporation of the City of London which, except to a comparatively small extent, is not subject to charitable trusts. The particulars of the charities comprised in the City's cash are mentioned in the Reports to the Commissioners on the Charities in the Administrative County of London, vol. 7. Except as to these charities, it does not appear that the; Commissioners have power to inquire into the origin and application of the City's cash.