§ 63. Lord ROBERT CECILasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the fact that Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and Lady Sybil Smith have been released, he will advise the release of Mrs. Wyan, who was convicted of a less serious offence?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)I think the Noble Lord has founded his question upon a misapprehension. The chief magistrate on Friday last sentenced Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and her companions to fourteen days' imprisonment in default of finding sureties to keep the peace. On the same day, while the case was still within his jurisdiction. Mr. Muskett, who appeared on behalf of the police, represented to him that the women were not militants habitually engaged in the use of criminal methods, and he consented to reduce the imprisonment to four days. There is no analogy between these cases and that of Mrs. Mary Wyan, who was sentenced to twenty-one days' imprisonment in default of finding sureties, and whose offence, having regard to all the circumstances, was, in my judgment, more serious than that of the others.