§ Mr. LANSBURYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in deciding to refuse Mr. Abbey the benefit of the new prison treatment on the ground that he has been guilty of serious violence, he was aware that the charge against him was only one of disorderly behaviour, that nothing was proved against him save that he attempted to scale a wall of 10, Downing Street, and that the magistrate was so far from regarding the case as serious that he offered Mr. Abbey the alternative of twenty-one days' imprisonment, or of being bound over in his own recognisances, and whether it is the case that Mr. Hugh Franklin, who received the benefit of the special treatment, had been sentenced to two months' imprisonment with no option for an attempted personal assault; and whether, in classifying cases as serious or otherwise, he will bear in mind the view taken by the magistrate and the prosecution?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI was fully aware of the charge against the prisoner, but the circumstances in which it was committed appeared to give it a serious character. In the other case referred to, as I was the object of the attempted assault, I was reluctant to take a severe view of the offence.