§ MR. BOWLESTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, in order to secure the return of property left in Metropolitan stage carriages, it is necessary for claimants inhabiting outlying parts of London to travel up to New Scotland Yard, at great inconvenience and expense, especially to persons of the poorer classes; and, if so, will he consider whether the regulations relating to lost property could not be amended so as to allow the local police to retain all such lost property for a few days thus enabling claimants to obtain it in their own districts, and to avoid the inconvenience and expense to which they are now put.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The hon. Member has not been correctly 1217 informed, since it is unnecessary for losers of property who are able to give satisfactory details by letter to attend at Scotland Yard, their property being sent to them by post when they so desire. Apart from other difficulties, the suggestion made in the Question is not practicable, because the property may be left in the stage carriage in an entirely different part of London from that in which the owner resides, and it would often be more convenient for the owner to go to the local police station than to New Scotland Yard. Moreover, the owner would often not know in what district he left his property or in what district it might be found, and would therefore have to pursue his inquiries from one police station to another along the whole route of the omnibus. Under the existing arrangement, everyone knows where to apply, and I am informed that no complaints have been received of any inconvenience.