§ MR. JOHN ELLIS (Nottinghamshire, Rushcliffe)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, at what date Mr. J. A. Baines, the Secretary of the Royal Commission on Opium, prematurely communicated the Report of the Commission to a particular newspaper, in the columns of which a summary of the Report appeared on 22nd April; whether, on more than one occasion during April, the latest being on the 22nd, Mr. Baines wrote to the representative of a Press organisation saying information as to the Report should be given to the Press as soon as he was at liberty to do so; and when Members of this House may expect to be in possession of the Report?
§ *SIR JOSEPH PEASE (Durham, Barnard Castle)Before the right hon. Gentleman answers, I should like to ask him whether he is aware that the members of the Commission resident in this country did not receive their copies of the Report until more than a week after it appeared in the daily papers?
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. HENRY FOWLER,) WolverhamptonI am unable to answer the question of the hon. Baronet, but I may say that I have only myself received this morning my own complete copy of the Report. With regard to the question of the hon. Member for Nottinghamshire, the Secretary of the Opium Commission understood that the Report would be laid on the Table of the House on Monday the 22nd April, and on Saturday the 20th he communicated the Report to a member of the Press who stated that he represented several newspapers. It was not until the morning of the 22nd that Mr. Baines learnt that 640 the Report would not be presented until the 25th. I have already stated I greatly regret this occurrence. The answer to the second question is in the affirmative.
§ MR. ALFRED WEBB (Waterford, W.)asked, whether any further official notice would be taken of the action of the secretary in prematurely disclosing a copy of the Report?
§ *MR. HENRY FOWLERNo, Sir; I am not proposing to take any steps.