§ MR. HOWELLI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Report of the Commissioner on the Sudbury Savings Bank defalcations will be ready; whether he is aware that what purports to be a summary of that Report appeared in the newspapers several weeks ago, whereas the Report is not yet issued to Members of this House; and whether he can inform the House by whom such Report was supplied to the papers: and, if not, whether he will inquire as to the source of such Report?
SIR W.HARCOURTI am informed by the Commissioner on the Sudbury Savings Bank defalcations that it was thought necessary that his Report to the Treasury should be made public in order that the trustees and depositors might be acquainted with the proposed arrangement by which the depositors would be paid 17s. 6d. in the £1 before January 29, when the arrangement was to be carried out. The House of Commons not being then sitting,-and it being desirable that the arrangement should be concluded, the Commissioner informs me that he communicated his Report to the Press, which, as he states, was done in the previous cases of Cardiff and Macclesfield Savings Banks.
§ MR. HOWELLMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether that is not in direct violation of the Order issued by this House in regard to the publication of Parliamentary Papers? I may inform the right hon. Gentleman it was not done in the case of either Cardiff or Macclesfield.
§ SIR W. HARCOURTI have given all the information supplied to me.
§ MR. HOWELLI will bring the question before the House at the earliest opportunity.
§ SIR W. HARCOURTI may tell the hon. Member that if the Rule he referred to had been rigorously observed in this particular case, very great injury would have been done to personal interests.