HC Deb 26 February 1912 vol 34 cc975-6
Mr. LANSBURY

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been called to the statement made in the House of Commons on 20th July, 1910, by his predecessor, in regard to treatment of prisoners sentenced for passive resistance and as suffragettes, to the effect that he had given instructions that all persons committed to prison for passive resistance, and all persons committed to prison as suffragettes were, as a matter of course, in the absence of special circumstances, to be accorded the full benefit of the new rules, and any other cases to which it would be possible to apply these rules; and if, under these circumstances, the prison authorities were justified in treating the prisoner, W. Ball, as a person outside the scope of this promise, and the regulations issued to give effect to it, seeing that his offence was a political one, and in connection with the suffragist movement?

Mr. McKENNA

The passage quoted from my right hon. Friend's speech must obviously be read in connection with the terms of the rule which he was discussing and which had shortly before been laid before Parliament. That rule applies in express terms only to offenders in the second or third divisions, and therefore does not apply to persons sentenced by the Courts to imprisonment with hard labour. The prison authorities had no option except to pursue the course which they adopted.

Lord HUGH CECIL

Docs not the absence of moral turpitude apply equally to offenders sentenced to hard labour?

Mr. McKENNA

Certainly, there might be no moral turpitude, but when my right hon. Friend spoke on the subject he had already published the rule. Those who come under that rule do not include those who are sentenced to hard labour.

Mr. LANSBURY

Does it include a person convicted of a political offence, and is it within the power of the Home Secretary to place a person sentenced to hard labour for such an offence in the second division so as to enable that person to have the benefit of the new rule?

Mr. McKENNA

The rule applies to sentences for political offences, provided there is no moral turpitude and the prisoner is sentenced only to the second or third division. It is quite true, as I have already stated to my hon. Friend, that the Home Secretary would have power to remit a sentence of hard labour.

Mr. LANSBURY

I beg to give notice that I shall raise the whole question on the Motion for the Adjournment of the House. The position is very unsatisfactory.