§ 13. Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the recent disclosure in a Petty Sessions Court in Ireland that Sergeant Sugrue, Royal Irish Constabulary, had offered to Mr. Hyland a bribe of £100, with other inducements, if he would sware falsely that certain young Nationalists in the district had placed a bomb to blow up Glenaheiry Lodge; from what source that money was obtainable, and what was to have been Sugrue's own reward; whether he has since been and now is in the police force; whether it was on his evidence Lord Ashdown obtained £448 5s. l1d. from the ratepayers of county Waterford for the alleged malicious injury; and, want of sufficient information having been the reason for refusing a 1287 sworn inquiry, whether such an inquiry will be granted now that this information is available?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI am aware that in the course of a case recently heard at the Petty Sessions Court at Clonmel the solicitor appearing for one of the defendants, in order to shake the credibility of the plaintiff, read out a document which he stated was an affidavit signed by the plaintiff in 1911. This document contained the statement referred to in the first part of the question. Sergeant Sugrue, who is still a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, denies upon oath that he made any offer—monetary or otherwise—to Mr. Hyland, and he had no authority to do so. The Inspector-General has no reason to doubt the sergeant's denial, and it is not proposed to hold any inquiry into the matter. The answer to the fourth part of the question is in the negative.