§ MR. O. V. MORGAN (Battersea)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is a fact that, at the inquiry into the Regent Street arrest case at Scotland Yard on Friday last, a woman named Fernando Pietre tendered her evidence, and asked that her name and address might not be made public; and, whether the Chief Commissioner, addressing the representatives of the Press, said—"If you give the name I will turn you all out;" and, if so, whether the inquiry, being an open one, anything transpiring in the Court is to be suppressed upon the order of the Chief Commissioner?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I am informed by Sir Charles Warren that when the witness in question gave her reasons previously to giving her evidence for not wishing her name and address to be published, Mr. Horace Smith, the legal assessor, said he hoped that those reasons were not at present being taken down by the reporters, as he did not know yet whether the witness would choose to be examined. Sir Charles Warren saw a reporter apparently, in spite of Mr. Smith's remarks, putting down the reasons, and he warned him that unless he desisted he should turn him out. Sir Charles Warren is assisted by very competent legal advice, and I am unwilling to interfere with his discretion so far as the conduct of the inquiry is concerned.