§ 30. Mr. ALFRED SHORTasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that certain employés of the London and North Western Railway Company, Wednesbury, were recently arrested on a charge of theft; whether, before they had been proved guilty, they were paraded through the public streets handcuffed together; whether he will call for a report or instruct the local police superintendent to adopt another course in such cases in the future?
§ Mr. SHORTTI have made inquiry with regard to this matter. The chief constable informs me that in ordinary circumstances the prisoners would have been conveyed by van, and it was only because the van could not be used on account of a failure of one of the horses that the prisoners had to be taken on foot. As there were seven men all charged with felony, the police considered it unsafe to take them unhandcuffed. The chief constable much regrets the incident, which was due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances not likely to recur.