§ MR. THORNE (West Ham, S.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of Joseph Hogarth, who was charged on remand at the Newcastle police court with having been in the unlawful possession of 25,000 Mauser pistol cartridges and 6,500 Mauser rifle cartridges in a workshop occupied by him at 42, Leazes Park Road, Newcastle; and whether, seeing that the magistrates ordered the confiscation of the cartridges without requiring proof that they were dangerous to the public, he proposes to take any action in the matter.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The cartridges in question, being kept in an unauthorised place, were liable to forfeiture under Sections 5 and 39 of the Explosives Act, 1875, irrespective of their danger to the public. I do not therefore propose to take any action in the matter.