§ SIR HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if there is any precedent for the publication of evidence as orally given and as corrected from the shorthand writers' transcription, as in the case of the Sales and Refunds Committee; if he will say with what object it was advised; and why the alteration of the questions docs not similarly appear in the second column.
§ MR. ARNOLD-FORSTERI am not aware of any precedent for the mode of publication of the evidence in question. The departure from precedent in this instance is due to the pressure which was put upon the Committee by the Public Accounts Committee to burnish this Report. In consequence of this pressure, many of the corrections were received after the Report had been completed. The Chairman informed me that in the circumstances he considered it fair to the witnesses that the evidence upon which the Report was based should be distinguished from the corrected evidence which had not been before the Committee when the Report was signed. Under these circumstances, I did not feel justified in overruling the decision of the Chairman of the Committee.
§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTBut is there any precedent for publishing the evidence without giving the witnesses an opportunity of correcting it?
§ MR. ARNOLD-FORSTERThere is none, but the circumstances were peculiar. The publication was pressed for by the Public Accounts Committee and I felt it my duty to allow it.