§ MR. SUMMERBELL (Sunderland)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his atenttion has been called to the case of a labourer, named Dillon, who was charged on Saturday at the Tower Bridge Police Court with attempting suicide, and stated that he had seven children at home in want of food, and one of them was dying, and that he had been out of work sixteen weeks, and applied in vain to the borough council for work; can he state in what union did Dillon live; whether the guardians of the union gave medical out-relief freely to children who were ill and whose parents could not pay for a doctor, or whether they put it on loan or required the parents to come into the workhouse if they needed medical relief for their children; and whether in that union the statutory provisions, that the guardians should give employment to those who were unemployed and had no means to maintain themselves, were carried out to the satisfaction of the Local Government Board.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I understand that Dillon resides in the parish of Camberwell. Medical relief is given on loan in this parish, but I have no reason to doubt that it is given freely in cases in which it is required. The guardians do not give employment to those who are unemployed and unable to maintain themselves except as a condition of relief.