§ CAPTAIN NOLANasked the Secretary of State for War, If a portion of the press were furnished with or had obtained copies of the Report of the Commissioners on Retirement and Promotion in the Army, at a date on which no copy, manuscript or printed, of such Report was accessible to Members; and, if steps can be taken to prevent Members from being again placed at a similar disadvantage?
MR. GATHORNE HARDY, in reply, said, that the Report of the Royal Commission was addressed to the Queen, and not to that House. He had promised that the Report should be in the hands of Members as soon as possible. Only a limited number of copies could be at first obtained, and when he was applied to, to allow the publication of the Report in the Press he thought that as the public took so much interest in the matter, there could be no objection to publicity being given to it. He had only taken the usual course in such matters. He could not lay the Report by itself on the Table; but the whole of the Report and appendices would be laid on the Table on or before Saturday next.
§ Sir HENRY HAVELOCKasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether a certain number of copies of the Report of the Royal Commission on Promotion and Retirement in the Army have been distributed to the London press in print, while none are in possession of Members of the House; and, if so, what prevented the printing of copies to be furnished to Members of the House at the same time as to the press?
MR. GATHORNE HARDYsaid, that the full number of copies could not be distributed in the time proposed. The Report alone had been allowed to be printed in the newspapers, and hon. Members were thus made acquainted with the recommendations made to Her Majesty quite as soon as the public.