HC Deb 07 August 1911 vol 29 c923W
Sir WILLIAM BULL

asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will say why the Probate and Records Department of Somerset House has just been entirely closed for six weeks, to the inconvenience of the general public and the professional searchers, in spite of the promise made by Sir Samuel Evans that he would direct other arrangements to be made?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

I am informed that the President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division has recently considered the question raised in the hon. Member's question, and that he has decided that it is not possible for him to arrange for extending the facilities for literary searchers during the present Long Vacation. It was never contemplated that the literary search room should be kept open during the whole vacation as at other times of the year. The Probate Registry is not a public record office, and the literary department was only formed in order to give to actual literary examiners such reasonable facilities as might be found convenient.