§ Mr. Max Madden (Bradford, West)I beg to ask leave to present a petition signed by David Somerville of Heaton Park drive, Bradford and 144 of my constituents from the congregations of St. Cuthbert's Roman Catholic church, St. Barnabas church and Westgate Baptist church, which calls attention to the plight of Irina Ratushinskaya, a poet, who is confined in a Soviet labour camp because of her poetry. She is in very poor health and, in the view of her husband and other fellow prisoners, her life is in danger.
The petitioners pray that
your honourable House encourages the Foreign Secretary and his colleagues in their representations to the Soviet Government with the purpose of obtaining both the release of Mrs. Ratushinskaya from the labour camp and her urgently needed assessment and treatment.
§ To lie upon the Table.