§ MR. WALSH (Lancashire, Ince)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he would be willing to appoint or recommend the appointment of a small Committee to ascertain what urgent or exceptional circumstances, if any, prevailed in the Witwatersrand previous to the issue of the licences of November and December, 1905, and to report at as early a date as possible.
§ * MR. CHURCHILLThe Lieutenant-Governor of the Transvaal exercised, as he had on previous occasions, the discretion vested in him as to granting licences; which he was entitled to do so long as no definite instructions on this point were given to him by the Secretary of State through the Governor. His 288 Majesty's Government while not able to regard the transaction with pleasure, feel that the responsibility and blame properly belongs to the late Administration, who failed to indicate any definite limit to the Chinese experiment either in point of time or numbers, and in these circumstances the Secretary of State does not think that any useful purpose would be served by such an inquiry.