§ 55. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister whether the plenary powers conferred upon General Maxwell in Ireland comprised power over the lives of persons not actually fighting; whether they comprised lining up the portion of the republican army from the Dublin Post Office after surrender against a wall with repeated threats of shooting; whether they comprised imprisoning a girl aged fifteen, putting her standing against a wall in front of a shooting party on three successive mornings, exhausted from hunger, bandaging her eyes to be shot, and giving all the orders for that purpose except the last, in order to make her divulge the contents of a dispatch which she had been carrying and had swallowed; whether they comprised telling the girl that her mother was dying and that she would be set free to see her mother if she divulged; whether they comprised finally insulting her because of her fidelity and bravery; and whether he proposes to take any action with reference to this use of the plenary powers conferred upon General Maxwell?
§ The PRIME MINISTERThere is no foundation for any of the insinuations contained in this question?
§ Mr. GINNELLThere is every foundation. If the right hon. Gentleman believes there is no foundation, will he institute a public civil inquiry?
§ The PRIME MINISTERNo, Sir, certainly not.