VISCOUNT TURNOTJR (Sussex, Horsham)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if more than one copy of the evidence, given before Mr. Commissioner Bucknill, is in the possession of the Colonial Office.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. CHURCHILL,) Manchester, N.W.The Papers in question are in duplicate. There is the original despatch relating to the Bucknill Report, and one copy of it and its enclosures. Both are and have been since their arrival in England in the Colonial Office, and no one has seen them except official persons and the hon. Member for Berkshire. But I was not aware until this morning that there were in fact two typewritten copies. I greatly regret that by an Answer I gave on the 19th instant I should have misled the House upon this point;† and I am obliged to the noble Lord for having by his Question enabled me to discover and to correct my mistake.
§ VISCOUNT TURNOURI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if the witnesses were sworn before giving evidence before Mr. Commissioner Bucknill.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe Secretary of State, as he stated in another place on Wednesday last,‡ understands that the witnesses were not sworn.