§ MR. FETHERSTONHAUGH (Fermanagh, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, whether the Estates Commissioners have 703 yet purchased the Bloomfield Estate, County Fermanagh, or are about doing So; and will the demesne lands or part of them be used to provide new holdings for Messrs. Graham, M'Farland, and other local evicted tenants listed by the Estates Commissioners as persons who may properly be provided with new holdings or be restored to their old holdings.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Estates Commissioners have not purchased the estate referred to in the Question, but have been informed that the owners are about to institute proceedings for the sale of the estate to them under Section 6 of the Irish Land Act, 1903. Until such proceedings have been instituted it is not possible to say what lands may be comprised in the estate for sale. The claims of all local evicted tenants will be carefully considered in connection with the distribution of any untenanted land which may be acquired in the neighbourhood.