§ MR. WHALLEYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Tichborne trial, Whether, during the progress of the trial a printed notice issued by the Government in Australia was not sent to the Solicitor of the Treasury and exhibited in his office, whereby a reward of £1,000 was offered for the apprehension of Arthur Orton on a charge of murder; and also another like paper offering a reward of £300 on a charge of horse stealing; whether a detective officer, to whom the person of Arthur 223 Orton was well known, was not sent to England by the authorities in Australia for the purpose of identifying him; and, whether such officer did not make known to the authorities here that the defendant was not Arthur Orton, but that he was a person known to him in Australia as Thomas Castro?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that he had only just time since he saw the Question of the hon. Member on the Notice Paper to consult the present Solicitor to the Treasury, who was Assistant Solicitor during the Tichborne trial, but who took the principal share in conducting the business under Mr. Gray, who died some time ago. He could, therefore, do nothing more than repeat the answer he had received. Mr. Stephenson, the present Solicitor, said he was quite convinced that if Mr. Gray had received any such notice as that referred to in the Question he would have sent it to him; but he never saw or heard of any notice of the kind, nor was such a notice, or any notice to that effect, exhibited in the Treasury Solicitor's office. Mr. Stephenson knew nothing of a detective having been sent over to this country by the authorities of Australia; and if such an officer made known to the authorities here that the Claimant was not Arthur Orton, he (Mr. Stephenson) never heard of such an occurrence, and he did not believe that the late Mr. Gray or any other person had. If he (Mr. Cross) could make further inquiries on the point through the police, he should be happy to do so.
§ MR. WHALLEYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he (Mr. Whalley) furnished him with certain affidavits, for he had not placed the Question on the Paper without satisfying himself as to the facts and the bona fides of his information—would the right hon. Gentleman cause inquiry to be made into the truth of the allegations contained in his Question?
§ MR. WHALLEYthen said he would postpone until Monday next the following Question, of which he had given Notice:—Whether the Secretary to the Treasury would lay upon the Table of the House a further Return of the expenditure in the Tichborne Case completed up the present time, and when; and whether the Return already made, 224 or which may be so made, will include the services or the expenses incurred by the detective police officers who were specially employed in relation to this prosecution?