24. Mr. HAZLETONasked whether the whole of the evidence taken in private before the Hardinge Commission is to be published in the forthcoming volume on the subject?
Mr. SAMUELThe volume of evidence was published on Monday. It does not contain the evidence taken during the private sittings of the Commission.
§ 58. Mr. BYRNEasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that, in the minutes of evidence given before the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland, reference is made to the notes handed in by Sir Mathew Nathan of a talk he had with Lord Midleton; whether, with the exception of one extract read by the Chairman, the notes were treated as a secret document; will he say why the said notes were not published in the appendix; is he aware that, according to the minutes, Sir Mathew Nathan answered thirty-six 469 questions in private and that Viscount Midleton answered thirty-two questions in private; whether he is aware that, to certain questions in the evidence, Sir Mathew Nathan, Viscount Midleton, Major-General Friend, Mr. Richard W. Booth, and County-Inspector Sharpe are represented in the text of the minutes of evidence by merely the numbers of the questions followed by asterisks; will he say whether these omissions are due to the censorship; and whether, in the public interest, he will give instructions that Sir Mathew Nathan's notes of his talk with Lord Midleton, the evidence given in private, and the questions deleted from the Report, together with the answers, shall be published as a supplement to the minutes of evidence?
§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)No, Sir; this was a matter which was within the discretion of the Royal Commission, and I am not prepared to interfere with their discretion.