§ Mr. LANSBURYI beg to ask the Home Secretary a question of which I have given him private notice: If his attention has been called to the fact that on Thursday last at Bow Street Police Court the witness giving evidence against Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence gave his evidence without being sworn, and that the magistrate, on his attention being called to this fact, allowed the witness to re-enter the witness-box to take the oath in the ordinary way; and to ask whether, in view of the fact that this procedure was considered illegal and unfair, seeing that this man was the 215 principal and, in fact, the main witness against the defendant, he will order her release?
§ Mr. McKENNAI am much obliged to my hon. Friend for having given me ample notice. If Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence or her friends hold that the course adopted was illegal and invalidates the conviction, I have no authority to determine the point, but it is open to them to take the proper legal proceedings to have the conviction set aside. Permission has been given for Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence to have an interview with her husband and her solicitor in order that they may consider this point. But I can find nothing in the procedure which involved any unfairness to the defendant, and I cannot therefore advise that the prerogative of mercy should be exercised on her behalf.