§ * MR. JOSEPH LAWRENCE (Monmouth Boroughs)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been directed to the fact that the Solicitor General, as a member of the Committee appointed on 20th May, 1900, by the Board of Trade to inquire into the working of the Patent Acts, presented a Minority Report, which Report, owing to his illness, was not appended to the printed Report of the Committee dated 10th January, 1901; and whether there is any objection to such Minority Report of the Solicitor General being now printed and laid upon the Table of the House.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURMy right hon. and learned friend, the Solicitor General, as stated in the Report of the Committee, was prevented by indisposition from signing the Report and from appending any note to it. Subsequent to the publication of the Report he communicated to me the note (I cannot call it a Minority Report) which he had intended should be appended to the Report itself, and which, he informs me, he had previously submitted to the Committee. I shall be happy to lay the note upon the Table of the House.