§ 99. Sir W. BYLESasked the Home Secretary whether he has now investigated the conditions under which the ladies interned at Aylesbury have to live, more especially as to the degrading associations of which evidence, at his request, has been furnished to him?
§ Sir W. BYLESI have received a very full answer privately to this question, but I should be glad if the purport of the reply might be indicated to the House and the public.
Mr. SAMUELYes, Sir. I find that the only basis for these allegations is that one woman interned at Aylesbury is said to be a degraded character. On the complaint of the other prisoners she was separated from them within twenty-four hours of her arrival, which was some months before the arrival of the Irish prisoners. Since then she has kept to herself, and if any of the others have associated with her this has been entirely of their own free will and choice. None of the prisoners have ever made any complaint about the woman subsequent to the day of her arrival, though they have had every opportunity, if they wished to do so, of making representations to the governor and medical officer of the institution, who is a woman, or to the two lady visitors of the institution. The allegations, therefore, are quite unfounded.