HC Deb 23 February 1872 vol 209 c951
LORD HENRY SCOTT

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Why the dissentient Report of two members of the Committee of Designs on Ships of War has been presented as a separate Paper, and does not, as usual, follow immediately after the Report of the majority of the Committee, and form a part of the same Paper as presented on February 19th; and, whether, for the convenience of reference, instructions could not be given that they should be attached together in the usual form in those copies which have not yet been issued?

MR. GOSCHEN

said, the dates of the Reports—namely, the 26th of July and the 14th of October, would show why they were not given together. Moreover, the Report of the two dissentient members of the Committee was really not a Report from the Committee at all, because they did not follow the usual course of presenting a Report, and having it discussed by the Committee, but they dissented from the Report; and, the Committee themselves being functi officio, the officers in question, two or three months afterwards, sent in a Report to the Admiralty criticizing the Report of the Committee, and stating their own views. Their Report was not a document emanating from the Committee at all.