§ MR. FORTESCUE FLANNERY (Yorkshire, Shipley)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, (1) if the right hon. Member for South Aberdeen has yet furnished to him the answer of Mr. Assistant Commissioner Laurie to the charges against him; (2) whether the Vice President of the Council has received a protest from the Incorporated Association of Head Masters against the report of the Assistant Commissioner; and (3) whether he has power to order the inclusion of such protest, along with any answer from the Assistant Commissioner, to be printed along with any further editions of the above-named report?
§ SIR J. GORSTThe answer to the first paragraph of the Question is in the negative; to the second, in the affirmative. I have no power to make any order with respect to the printing of the report referred to.
§ MR. J. BRYCE (Aberdeen, S.)As I am referred to in this Question, I ought to say that, inasmuch as the Secondary Education Commission came to an end last August, I have no longer any power or jurisdiction whatever in this matter, and it is not for me to send to the Education Department any reply that Mr. Laurie may make. Mr. Laurie has, however, requested me to say on his behalf that his reply to the protest referred to in the Question is now in the printer's hands, and will, he trusts, be published within a fortnight. It would have been ready sooner had not Mr. Laurie been awaiting the protest referred to, which reached him only a fortnight ago. He desires to give every possible publicity to his reply.