§ SIR JOHN LUBBOCK (London University)asked the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Central Bradford, Whether his attention had been called to the reports in the newspapers purporting to be the conclusions of the Royal Commission on the subject of Loss of Life at Sea?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVRE (Bradford, Central)As Chairman of the Royal Commission on Loss of Life at Sea, I must express my great surprise at seeing what purported to be the recommendations of the Commission published in The Times of yesterday, and still more at what purported to be fuller extracts from the Report of the Commission and 367 from alleged Reports of dissentient Members of the Commission in The Standard of to-day. I can only say that these conclusions and Reports are very incomplete, and quite unauthorized, and that the position of the minority has been inaccurately stated. It is true that the Commission, at its last meeting, substantially and almost unanimously arrived at a conclusion; but their Report has not yet received its final revision, nor has it yet been signed; nor have the reservations of a small minority of the Commission been laid before the Commission itself in their final form. I need hardly point out that until the Report has been presented to Her Majesty in the usual form it cannot properly be made public. I must ask the public, therefore, to reserve its judgment until the full Report can be issued. The Commission has great reason to complain that the incomplete documents laid before it have been sent to some of the London papers; and I shall make strict inquiries as to how this has occurred.