asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inmates in remand homes or approved schools were punished by four or more strokes in corporal punishment during the last quarter of 1946.

120 boys (on 129 occasions) in remand homes and, apart from schoolroom canings. 649 boys (on 747 occasions) in approved schools.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that both proportionately and absolutely there are far fewer inflictions of corporal punishment in prisons and Borstal institutions than in remand homes or approved schools; and will he, therefore, give special attention to the question?

Yes, Sir, but I am reluctant to do anything that would encourage some of the intellectual tortures that some people propose to substitute for caning.