§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Home Secretary what is the present condition of health of Wilfred Morton, a conscientious objector, serving his fourth term of imprisonment in Hull Prison; and whether, owing to there being no hospital attached to this prison, the condemned cell is used as such?
§ Sir G. CAVEWilfred Norton is reported by the medical officer to be in good health. A large cell, made by removing the partitions between three cells, is being used at present as a hospital room, as it is safer than the other hospital during air raids. It is not the "condemned cell," though it was once, some years ago, occupied by a prisoner under sentence of death.
§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Home Secretary if a conscientious objector named Frank Higgins, now under sentence of two years' hard labour in Newcastle Gaol, is on hunger strike and is being forcibly fed; and whether Higgina abandoned the Home Office works scheme at Knutsford and was arrested on 13th April, and since that time has been continuously hunger-striking, first in Leeds Prison and then in the military hospital at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and now in Newcastle Gaol?
§ Sir G. CAVEThe answer to the first two parts of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the third part, this prisoner refused food while in Leeds Prison. I do not know whether he refused food while in military custody between 9th May and 21st June. Since his reception in Newcastle Prison on a fresh sentence on 21st June, the prisoner has been refusing food and is now doing so, but I am informed that for a few days in the beginning of this month he took food voluntarily.