§ 22. Mr. S. Silvermanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the approximate cost to the Exchequer of the recent police gala at Bath in which a large gathering of men, women and children, led by the mayor and the chief constable, were entertained by a mock execution in which, after a procession burlesquing a condemned man's progress from the condemned cell to the gallows, and the spiritual consolations afforded on such occasions, a man was dropped several feet from a gallows with a rope round his neck into water from which his body was solemnly recovered; and if he will disallow for grant the expenditure on this gala.
§ Mr. EdeI am informed that this swimming gala was organised by the Bath City Police Athletic Club; the cost does not fall on the local police fund and the question of the Exchequer grant does not, therefore, arise. I have no responsibility for the conduct of a function of this kind in a local police force and it is not for me as Home Secretary to make any comment on a matter of taste.