§ Mr. SAMUEL SAMUELasked the Attorney-General whether he will give instructions to the Public Prosecutor to take action in the case brought to his notice by the Mayor of Wandsworth in respect of irregularities in connection with funds collected for war charities and misappropriated by the collector, the particulars of which have been handed to the Public Prosecutor and the Attorney-General; is he aware that the Public Prosecutor refuses to take action owing to lapse of time; and is this a valid reason in such a case?
§ Sir GORDON HEWARTI have been informed by the Director of Public Prosecutions that the papers in this case were first laid before him five months after the money had been collected, and that in the interval the Mayor of Wandsworth had sanctioned a postponement of the payment over of the collected money to himself on two different occasions, some three months apart, and so had probably reduced the payment of the money to a civil debt, and that it was only after considerable pressure had been placed upon the collector to make monetary restitution that any application to prosecute was made to the Director, who, in all these circumstances declined to intervene, a decision in which I concur, and of which I approve.