§ SIR HENRY KIMBERTo ask the hon. Member for the Elland Division, as representing the Charity Commissioners, if he will state under what power, whether statutory or otherwise, the Charity Commissioners sanctioned the handing over by the trustees of the Weir bequest the sum of £5,000 out of the trust funds to the governors of the Bolingbroke Hospital before a scheme had been published, and without giving the parishioners of the parish of Streatham an opportunity of knowing of or protesting against such diversion of the trust money; whether the Charity Commissioners will lay upon the Table a Report of the public inquiry 271 held last November at Balham into the administration of the trust, and their decision thereon; whether he is aware that Mr. H. G. Hills, one of the Weir trustees, who had been offered by the Bolingbroke Hospital on 16th October last a life governorship of such hospital on the following day wrote and declined the same; whether, on the day before the Wandsworth Borough Council met to elect three representatives to the committee of management of the trust in place of the retiring members, the trustees of the said fund co-opted two of such retiring representatives to be life trustees; whether such co-optation was in direct contravention of the terms of the said will; and, if so, whether any steps have been, or will be, taken to remove such illegally appointed trustees, or to prevent them from acting in the administration of the trust.
(Answered by Mr. Trevelyan.) The circumstances in which the Charity Commissioners sanctioned the payment of £5,000 to the governors of the Bolingbroke Hospital were explained in the Answer given by me to a Question by the hon. Member on 23rd March last. The Report made to the Commissioners in the result of the inquiry held last November is confidential. The decision of the Commissioners upon it will be shown in the scheme which is in preparation for publication. The Commissioners have been informed by Mr. H. G. Hills that he declined to accept nomination as a life governor of the Bolingbroke Hospital. The co-optation referred to by the hon. Member was of two persons to be members of the committee of management. It was invalid. The committee is not constituted, and the only trustees of the charity are those appointed by the will.