§ MR. J. O'CONNOR (Tipperary, S.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Why the prosecution of Cavanagh, one of the witnesses for The Times before the Special Commission, on the charge of shooting with intent to murder, was not conducted by the Treasury, as is usual in such grave charges; and, whether it is a fact that the defending counsel in the case is the senior counsel to the Treasury at the Central Criminal Court?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)The Regulations do not make it incumbent on the Director of Public Prosecutions 15 to take up cases of this nature on his own initiative. In this particular case no notice was given to his Department, and no application for legal aid was made, either by the police or by the magistrate by whom the prisoner was committed for trial. Judging from the report of the trial, it does not seem to be a case which presents any feature of exceptional difficulty or importance. The answer to the second paragraph is in the affirmative.
§ THE LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN (Mr. SEXTON) (Belfast, W.)I beg to ask the Attorney General, whether Mr. Justice Hawkins, in his summing up, declared that the prosecutor, a witness for The Times, had concocted a tale which, if true, would have caused half of the Irish Members to be hanged?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir RICHARD WEBSTER) (Isle of Wight)I must ask for Notice of that Question.
§ MR. J. O'CONNORWhy did not the police report the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions; and why was the case considered to be of such small importance?
§ MR. MATTHEWSsaid, he was un-unable to tell, unless it was that it was a matter a private prosecutor could deal with.