HC Deb 30 March 1908 vol 187 cc104-5
MR. CHARLES CRAIG

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, whether the Inspector-General, when asked at the Waterford assizes to produce the original of the typed document of the 11th September, copies of which were furnished to Lord Ashtown and the rural district council, declined to produce it, but was compelled to do so under the order of the presiding Judge; whether the document when produced had upon its face certain erasures and interlineations; and, if so, will he state when and by whom these erasures were made and in whose handwriting are the interlineations.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. CHEERY,) Liverpool, Exchange

The document which the Inspector-General produced at Waterford assizes was not, strictly speaking, the original of the statement of 11th September furnished to the parties, but was District Inspector Preston's original unsigned draft of that statement. The Inspector-General had with him at the time, on the official file, the signed statement itself, but as, through inadvertence, it had been marked Copy, he considered that lie could not properly hand it in as being the original. The unsigned draft which was produced contains some erasures and interlineations, all of which were made by the District Inspector himself. These alterations are mostly verbal, and they do not affect the sense of the statement as originally drafted by the District Inspector. They were made by him on the date of the statement before the fair copies were made for transmission to the parties. I have here both the draft and the signed statement taken from the file, and if the hon. Member still has any doubt about the matter I shall be happy to produce both documents for his inspection.

MR. MOORE

asked whether the right hon. Gentleman had not already stated that District Inspector Preston had destroyed his unsigned draft.

MR. CHERRY

I do not think I made any such statement. I said he had destroyed some papers.

MR. MOORE

Did not the right hon. Gentleman say the paper he had destroyed was the unsigned draft of the 11th September.

MR. CHERRY

Certainly not.

MR. CHARLES CRAIG

At what time will it be convenient to the right hon. Gentleman for me to inspect the letter?

MR. CHERRY

Now, or at any time during to-day or to-morrow.

MR. CHARLES CRAIG

To-day at ten minutes past four?

MR. CHERRY

Certainly.