§ SIR HENRY CRAIK (Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he has considered the Report of the Director of the Royal Scottish Museum, calling attention to the serious danger of fire to the museum involved in the proximity of tenements, the windows of which are within eleven feet of the windows of the museum, and which are occupied as warehouses, one being used as a painter's warehouse, and another as a warehouse for bonded whisky; whether application 1096 has been made to the Treasury and His Majesty's Office of Works for such extension of the vacant space round the museum as may guard against this imminent danger, and for such addition to the premises as may afford adequate space for the collections contained in this, the only Scottish museum assisted by Imperial funds; and, if so, what has been the result of such application.
§ MR. SINCLAIRThe reply to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. Representations have been made on the subject to the Treasury and the First Commissioner of Works, and I am now in consultation with those Departments.
§ SIR HENRY CRAIKHas not the necessity for an increase in the buildings as well as the danger of fire been under the consideration of the Department, and is not the Office of Works entirely in accord with the Report?
§ MR. SINCLAIRI have no reason to think that the facts are otherwise than as stated.