§ MR. TALBOT (Oxford University)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the report of an inquest held last week in Westminster on the death of a man found in a dying 82 condition on the Victoria Embankment as the result of which the jury returned a verdict of death from starvation; whether anything is known of the movements of the man before he was found by the police; and whether the police can be instructed to take all possible pains to remove persons found in a, destitute condition in public places to the workhouse infirmaries or the hospitals so as to prevent the recurrence of such an occurrence.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I have seen a newspaper report of the inquest, held at Westminster on 13th November, on a man named Trew, which is, I believe, the one to which the right hon. Gentleman refers. The police had no knowledge of this man or his movements until he was found on the Embankment. They already have full instructions to deal with all such cases in a prompt and humane manner. Acting under these instructions, the constable who noticed the man on a seat on the Embankment, apparently ill, sent at once for an ambulance, and removed him to hospital, where he died shortly afterwards. The same action-would be taken by the police in any other similar cases. I should add that the man was not absolutely destitute, as he had 4s. 2d. in his purse.