§ MR. J. F. X. O'BRIENI wish to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it was from the Home Office, or from the Prisons Board, or the Governor of Millbank Prison, Mr. Soames obtained the privilege of a private interview with James Mullett for his (Mr. Soames's) representative, Mr. Thompson; if Mr. Thompson was not a solicitor was the private interview accorded to him according to ordinary rule; if not according to ordinary rule, why was the private interview granted; and could other solicitors expect similar privileges for their representatives?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have several times already stated that Mr. Soames obtained the privilege of the interview in question from the Prison Commissioners. The private interview was allowed according to usual practice, and the representatives of other solicitors may expect similar privileges under similar circumstances.
§ MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has communicated with Mr. R. Anderson, Sub-Commissioner of Police, in regard to his having written a letter to the Times upon matters which came before him owing to his connection with the Detective Department of the Home Office; and, if so, what was the nature of the communication; whether he has observed that Mr. Anderson stated in his letter to the Times that Mr. Macdonald appealed to him to help him in finding a witness to prove what he called the American part of the case of the Times against the Irish Members and others, and that it appears from the tenour of the letter that the relations of Mr. Anderson with the Home Office and with the Irish Office were kept secret; and whether he can state if those relations were known to Mr. Macdonald through his being informed of them by anyone connected with the Home Office or with the Irish Office?
§ MR. MATTHEWSConsidering the circumstances of extreme provocation under which Mr. Anderson's letter was written, I have not thought it necessary to make any official communication to him on the subject. I am not aware by what channel or to what extent the relations of Mr. Anderson with the Home Office or the Irish Office became known to Mr. Macdonald.