§ SIR HENRY TYLER (Great Yarmouth)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the Royal Commission, which he has now undertaken to appoint,
To inquire into and report upon the system under which, warlike stores and equipments have been supplied to Her Majesty's Service during the past five years,is, under the instructions to be given to the Commission, to be prohibited from inquiry into any complaints that may be made in regard to occurrences not falling strictly within that limit of time, or from tracing back to their sources complaints in regard to occurrences falling within those five years; or, whether he will, in drafting those instructions, whilst referring the Commission generally to matters falling within the five years, afford them such latitude and discretion as they may themselves deem, from time to time, to be necessary, so as to avert all risk of hampering them in their investigations, and of giving occasion to complainants of alleging that they have been prevented by the strictness of the limit of time from proving or bringing forward subjects of importance to the inquiry?
§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S.E.)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the Royal Commission on Warlike Stores will have the power to examine witnesses on oath?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)It is necessary that some limit should be placed to the inquiry, and therefore July 1, 1881, has been fixed upon as the date from which to inquire into complaints received and defects existing; but the instructions to the Royal Commission will not preclude them from searching back into any antecedent circumstances which may have given rise to such complaints, or which may tend to fix responsibility for defects found to have existed within the prescribed period. The Commission will have all the ordinary powers possessed by a Royal Commission, and the authority to administer on oath may not be included among them; but if in the conduct of the inquiry it appears to the Commissioners that they do not possess 1109 sufficient powers or authority they will report to the Government, and it will be for the Government to determine what course they shall adopt under the circumstances.