§ 60. Mr. RADFORDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the case of a man named Flint who has been sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour for criminal offences against his daughter, aged 14 years, who has now been removed from his control, and to the statement made at his trial that he has a second daughter, aged eight years, but that no similar order could be made with regard to her; and will he take the necessary action to save this child from coming under her father's control after his release from prison?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Captain Hacking)The Home Secretary is unable in the present state of the law to take any steps in regard to the younger daughter, but he has ascertained that the Director of Public Prosecutions is in communication as to her future with those to whom the elder daughter has been entrusted under an order of the Court before which Flint was convicted, and that he is satisfied that every care has been, and is being, taken of the children by their relatives.
§ Mr. RADFORDIf our law is so imperfect that only the child against whom an offence was committed can be transferred to the custody of other people in whose care she will be safe, is it not the duty of the Home Secretary to take steps to have the law altered, so that the other child may be similarly protected?
§ Mr. BRIANTIs it not possible that children can be adopted by boards of guardians under a magistrate's order where the parents are unsuitable to have control, and is not this a method by which this and similar cases could be got over?
§ Captain HACKINGThat is a legal point of which I must have notice.