§ CAPTAIN CRAIG (Down, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a boy named Alexander Jennings was committed to the Meath Industrial School at Blackrock, County Dublin, on 29th June, 1907, for the first offence, without the knowledge of his father, James A. Jennings, of 85, Island Street, Newtownards Road, Belfast; and whether, in view of the fact that the Lord-Lieutenant has been memorialised by the father for the release of his son, who is willing to give ample security for his future good behaviour, he will order his discharge.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The case has come before me on several occasions upon the petition of the father for the boy's release. The father is stated to be a respectable hard-working man, but he appears to have been unable to exercise due control over his son who, according to the evidence, was drifting into crime. 1627 In the circumstances I am satisfied that it would not be in the boy's own interest to discharge him. He is in a fair way to do well in the industrial school.