HC Deb 14 March 1929 vol 226 cc1263-4
32. Mr. DAY

asked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the treatment of boys who are sent from industrial schools which are controlled by the board of control to County Leitrim in Ireland; and what inquiries are made by the board of control to satisfy themselves that such boys will receive humane treatment?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

Industrial schools are not controlled by the board of control, but are under the jurisdiction of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to whom any question on the subject should be addressed.

Mr. DAY

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that many of these boys have been sent there; receive miserable wages and are half starved and underfed?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I have given.

Mr. DAY

May I ask whether inquiries go through the board of control? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a prominent Judge said that these English boys were literally English slaves?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

The hon. Member evidently has been misinformed, and he has accepted a statement made in an article in a newspaper. As I have already explained, the board of control have nothing whatever to do with industrial schools.