§ Any Report of the Commissioners shall be laid as soon as may be before both Houses of Parliament, and the Commissioners may, if they think fit, make interim Reports.
§ Sir J. D. REESI beg to move to leave out the word "may" ["The Commissioners may"], and to insert instead therof the word "shall."
It is considered desirable by many people interested in this question that there shall be an interim Report. It is perfectly true that the Commissioners may, if they think fit, make interim Reports, but equally they may not think fit, and Parliament may be without a Report for a very long time. I shall be prepared to agree to three months, six months, or any period which the right hon. Gentleman might approve, but I do think there should be some provision that 1965 they shall submit an interim Report. There are some pressing matters relating to an expedition which is not dead like the Dardanelles Expedition, but which is continuing and in which there is a more living interest than there is in the Dardanelles Expedition.
§ Mr. CHAMBERLAINI hope my hon. Friend will not press his Amendment in the particular form in which he has put it down. It is no good directing the Commission to make an interim Report if they have not carried their investigations to a point which enables them to do it. There is a serious point raised by a manuscript Amendment of the hon. Member for East Mayo (Mr. Dillon), which proposes that the Mesopotamian Commission should be directed to make an interim Report with regard to the medical arrangements in that campaign. The Government are willing to accept that Amendment if the House so desire. I believe that is the point on which the public most desire to have information and to have a Report at the earliest possible time. I quite understand that the House would not wish the Report on that subject to be delayed until the Mesopotamian Commission have finished the whole of their inquiries. I hope the announcement I make that the Government will accept the Amendment of the hon. Member for East Mayo will satisfy my hon. Friend and enable him to withdraw his Amendment.
§ Sir J. D. REESCertainly; that meets my case.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Mr. WATTI beg to move at the end of the Clause to add the words,
"and shall in any event issue a Report within three months after the passing of this Act, and their final Report within six months after the passing of this Act, unless this period shall be extended by Resolution of the House of Commons."
I was asked to move this Amendment by the hon. Member for Pembrokeshire (Mr. W. Roch), but after what the right hon. Gentleman has said I feel it is hopeless to expect that he will accept anything in the nature of a compulsory Report within three months and a final Report within six months. The idea of the Amendment is to expedite the work of the Commission, and I think the House desires that it should be expedited.
§ Question, "That the words proposed be there inserted," put, and negatived.
§ Mr. DILLONI beg to move at the end of the Clause to add the words—
"Provided always that the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Mesopotamian campaign shall proceed with all possible expedition to inquire with regard to the provision for the sick and wounded and shall report the results of their inquiry on this matter before proceeding with the rest of their inquiry."
Major-General Sir IVOR HERBERTOn a point of Order. I understood that the Amendment standing in the name of the hon. Member for Pembrokeshire (Mr. Roch) was moved.
§ The CHAIRMANIt was disposed of.
§ Sir IVOR HERBERTNot in such a way that anyone could hear it.
§ The CHAIRMANI thought that I put it quite distinctly.
§ Sir IVOR HERBERTNo one here could hear it.
§ Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.
§ Clause 7 (Short Title) agreed to.