§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the Treasury in 1872 issued a Circular to the War Office on the subject of Committees of Inquiry into inventions for the Public Service; whether that Circular stated that no officer in the Civil, Military, or Naval Services of the Crown should be called upon to judge or give an opinion where his own interests might come into collision with that of any other person, or be permitted to obtain or hold, or be directly interested in, any letters patent for any articles needed for the use of the Government; whether he can state what occurrences led to the issue of this Circular; whether this Circular is still held to be valid by the War Office, or when it was first formally held not to be binding upon them; and whether he will lay a Copy of it upon the Table?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANIn December, 1871, a Treasury Minute on the subject in question, dated November 29, 1871, was communicated to th- 1091 War Office. The points stated in the second paragraph were among those included in it. The Minute was issued because a case had occurred in which an officer under the War Department had been offered a royalty for the use by a private firm of an invention of his. This called the Secretary of State's attention to the general question, and after consultation with the Admiralty the issue of such Minute was suggested to the Treasury. After the passing of the Act of 1883, which altered the law as to patents, the whole question was reconsidered, and in 1885 the Minute was withdrawn. It will be rather for the Treasury to say whether this Minute, now obsolete, should be laid upon the Table.