§ MR. LEHMANN (Leicestershire, Market Harborough)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that Mr. W. Muskerry Tilson, a Commissioner for Oaths, of 26, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C., refused on 2nd April, 1908, to take a statutory declaration under the Vaccination Acts when applied to by Mr. G. H. T. Coleman, Homelea, Furzeham Road, West Drayton, for that purpose; and whether he will consider the advisability of introducing legislation to prevent such occurrences in future.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) The Commissioner for Oaths informs me that he has had a case in which he questioned a person who attended before him to make a statutory declaration under The Vaccination Act, 1907. He states that his object was to ascertain the bona fides of such person, and that the answers given did not satisfy him that he would be justified in taking the declaration. This is probably the case referred to in the Question. I think the Commissioner acted under a misapprehension of his duties in the matter, and I will communicate with him on the subject.