§ MR. STANGER (Kensington, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of. State for the Home Department whether His Majesty's Government have any power to give directions to the magistrates as to the punishment to be awarded to the suffragists; and whether, in point of fact, any such directions have been given.
§ MR. HERBERT SAMUELHis Majesty's Government have no such power, and of course no such directions have been given. The story which has been widely circulated that my right hon. friend on one occasion gave such a direction to a Metropolitan magistrate is entirely without foundation, and is due either to an extraordinary misunderstanding of a remark made by the magistrate, or to wilful invention.
MR. STANLEY WILSON (Yorkshiie, E. R., Holderness)Will the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of putting these women in homes of detention, and not in prison?
§ MR. HERBERT SAMUELNo, Sir.