MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS. (Hansard, 20 July 1882)

§ VISCOUNT BURY,

in moving— That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that Her Majesty will cause to be laid on the Table, Copy of the report of a committee which has lately inquired into the Channel Tunnel scheme; also copies of any other papers which may exist on the same subject, said, the noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Morley) had promised, some time ago, that Papers on the subject should be laid upon the Table. The general tenor of the Report of the Committee on the subject, which had been made some time since, was to the effect that if the Tunnel were constructed, a considerable fortress would have to bo built at the English end, at an enormous cost, and it would necessitate the stationing at the Tunnel mouth of several thousand troops, which would add considerably to the military expenditure of the year. It was known that those opinions had been expressed by the Committee, and also that the Commander-in-Chief had expressed a strong opinion against the construction of the Tunnel, and that Sir Garnet Wolseley and Sir Lintorn Simmons, who had been Inspector of Fortifications—in fact, all the high military authorities—had expressed strong opinions of the same character. He was quite sure that his noble Friend would agree with him that, in a matter of this enormous importance, it was desirable that if the Tunnel were to be proceeded with, it should only be after the fullest information had been laid before the public. He therefore ventured to claim the fulfilment of the promise which the noble Earl had made at an earlier period of the Session, that these Papers should be laid on the Table.

THE EARL OF MORLEY

said, he had never promised that the Papers should be laid on the Table at any particular time. What he had said, and what he now repeated, was that the Papers when they had been fully considered by the Government would be laid before Parliament, At the present moment the Papers were being prepared, in order that they should be considered by the War Office and the Government; and after that was done those which were not of a strictly confidential character, and which it would not be injurious to the Public Service to publish, should be laid upon the Table of the House. It would be inconvenient for the Papers to be laid on the Table in a fragmentary form; but, at the same time, there was no desire on the part of the Government to conceal anything which could possibly be made known to the public on the subject, which was, as the noble Viscount had stated correctly, one of the greatest importance.