§ MR. BUTCHER (Cambridge University)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury, with reference to the Report of the Departmental Committee on Irish Land Purchase Finance, will the evidence taken by the Committee be laid before Parliament, and, if so, how soon wilt copies of it be obtainable; under the proposal in Paragraph 103 of the Report would the landlord receive an amount of guaranteed 2¾ per cent. stock which, if sold at 92 per cent. or any higher percentage of its face value, would produce the amount of his purchase-money in cash; and, if the market price of the, stock were below 92 per cent. and the landlord had to sell a portion of it, for instance, to pay off mortgages and other superior interests, would the landlord have to sacrifice purchase-money to an amount equivalent to the difference between 92 per cent. and the lower market price which he might have to accept for any stock sold by him.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) A good deal of the evidence taken by the Committee was given on the understanding that it would be treated as confidential, and it would not be to the public interest to publish it. The interpretation placed by the hon. Member on the recommendation made in Paragraph 103 of the Report appears to me to be correct, but There would, of course, if that recommendation were adopted, be no obligation upon the landlord to exercise the option of being paid in stock if he regarded it as not to his interest to do so.