§ MR. HANBURYI beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works, as Chairman of the Committee on Railway Rates, whether his attention had been called to the fact of the publication in a morning paper of what purports to be the Report of that Committee; whether that Report is anything but an inaccurate statement of the facts; and whether he has any information as to who is responsible for the publication?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREThe document, which appears in The Times of to-day, is not the Report of the Committee on Railway Rates as agreed to, but is a copy of a Draft Report, which, as Chairman, I submitted to it. That draft was much altered by the Committee by omissions, additions, and amendments, none of which, with one exception, appear in the document in The Times. The document, therefore, must be regarded as imperfect and misleading, especially as regards its reference to the Railway Committee. I think that the Committee and The Times newspaper have equal reason to complain that some person should have forwarded to that paper this very imperfect draft. Who it was I am unable to say. I think any Member of the Committee would have warned The Times that the document was not the Report of the Committee. The real Report, I hope, will be in Members' hands in two or three days' time.