HC Deb 08 April 1897 vol 48 c752
MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether he is in a position to state his decision as to authorising an official translation into Welsh of certain portions of the Report of the Welsh Land Commissioners; (2) whether he is aware that such a translation is the unanimous recommendation of the Commissioners, and that they state in paragraph 926 of the Report that without such a translation there will be great difficulty in bringing the views of the Commissioners to the knowledge of a large number of the tenant farmers of Wales; and (3) whether he has considered the suggestion made by the Commissioners that the determination of the parts of the Report which it is most desirable to translate into Welsh should be left to a Committee of the Commissioners, acting in conjunction with the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury?

SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY

The answer to the first paragraph is in the negative; to the second and third in the affirmative. Matters are in this position at present: After consultation with the Treasury, I informed the Chairman of the Commission that before making any recommendation to the Treasury I should wish to be furnished with a preliminary statement as to the nature and bulk of the extracts which the Commission thought might with advantage be translated; and I am now waiting for his final answer, which has not yet reached me.