§ 76. Lieut.-Colonel Kingsmillasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that certain police forces are insisting that owners of private weapons, who hand them in, in accordance with his recent appeal, must sign a form totally abandoning any claim to their weapons, failing which the police refuse to accept them into custody and threaten prosecution; and whether it is in accordance with his orders that private property should be expropriated without compensation in this way.
§ Mr. Ede:The appeal was for the handing in of weapons held illegally without firearm certificates on the understanding that proceedings would not be taken against those who had broken the law in this way. In these circumstances no question of compensation for the loss of the weapons can arise.