DR. CAMERONasked the Lord Advocate, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that a document, purporting to be the text of Sheriff Ivory's Report to the Lord Advocate on the recent police and military expedition to Skye, dated Edinburgh, February 10th, was published in The Scotsman of February 12th; whether the document is really what it purports to be; if so, did any meeting of the Inverness Police Committee, to which body it is said to have been communicated, take place between February 10th and February 12th; and, whether he has asked from Sheriff Ivory and the Police Committee of Inverness any explanation of the manner in which an official document, bristling with aspersions on the character of individuals, and since denied to Parliament, was communicated to The Scotsman for publication?
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)I am aware that the document to which this Question relates was published in The Scotsman. The document is what it purports to be; and upon inquiry I have learned that it was forwarded for publication by the Sheriff. Allegations had been made in a letter to a newspaper, regarding which a Question was put in the House yesterday, with respect to certain things which ho was stated to have said in Skye; and he was desirous that what had really occurred should appear. He sent a copy of the document to the newspapers in the belief that in a conversation which he had had with me before the Report was made I had indicated that I would not object to his so publishing it. It may be proper to add that I had not intended to convey this impression; and it has now been made clear that no official 1889 document of that class shall be communicated to the Press.
DR. CAMERONsaid, on the Vote for Salaries he would move the reduction of the salary of this official.