NATIONAL
N-FORD
DISABLED
CHEMED
the
Any communication on subject of this letter should be addressed to-
THE UNDER SECRETARY of State,
HOME OFFICE,
LONDON, S.W.1.
and the following number quoted :—
6820142 670,319/1.
Idung?
HOME OFFICE,
WHITEHALL.
3
12
29th April, 1935.
(2)
Sir,
20 APL 135
In reply to your letter of the 1st instant (53513/1/35) enclosing a copy of the Hong Kong Asylums Amendment Ordinance, 1935, I am directed by Secretary Sir John Gilmour to refer to section 2 (1) of the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884, and to the definition of "prison" and "prisoner" in section 16 of the Act, and to say that in this country any prisoner who is detained in any prison or place of confinement to which a person may be committed whether on remand or for trial, safe custody, or punishment, or otherwise, under any other than civil process may, if he has been certified to be insane in the manner prescribed by section 2 of the Act, be removed to an asylum or mental hospital under a warrant of the Secretary of State. Sir John Gilmour agrees that an untried prisoner who is insane should in the ordinary course be brought up for trial in order that the question of his sanity may be considered by the court, and in practice the power of removal is seldom exercised in the case of a prisoner on remand or committed for trial unless his condition is such that removal is a matter of extreme urgency. on medical grounds. Where it has been necessary
to remove a prisoner who has been committed for trial,
arrangements are usually made shortly before the date of the
trial, to ascertain whether he is likely to be in a fit condition
The Under Secretary of State,
COLONIAL
to/
(+) by higg
OFFICE.
47-84064