§ EARL BEAUCHAMP; My Lords, I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War if he will arrange for the further distribution of the report of the Intelligence Department upon the forces of the Boer Republic before the war, the supply of which has proved insufficient for the members of this House. This report has been extensively quoted from in the public press of other countries, and has also been reviewed in the press of this country, and referred to in debate by the noble Marquess the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. A few copies, I understand, have been placed in the library, but members have been unable to obtain copies. I attach great importance to this document, because upon its accuracy and our conviction that it is 248 accurate must depend the confidence of the country in the efficiency of the Military Intelligence Department.
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (The Earl of HARDWICKE)In the absence of the Under Secretary of State for War, I have been asked to reply to the noble Earl. The report in question was in a book, and kept secret until it fell into the hands of the Boers and became public. All the copies that could be collected in South Africa were collected and the book was made a Parliamentary Paper, and placed on the Table in dummy. Copies were placed, as the noble Earl has stated, in the libraries of both Houses. The question of the noble Earl amounts to a request that the book should be reprinted, and to this I am instructed to say that the Secretary of State considers that it would be a waste of time and public money, and he is unable to consent to the reprinting. He, however, has six copies left, and these he is perfectly willing to distribute among members of both Houses.
§ EARL SPENCERI think more information is required. We have often heard of the abuses of placing a Paper in dummy on the Table, but I have never heard of a much greater one than this, where a report intended as a Parliamentary Paper is placed on the Table on dummy, and only a few copies afterwards put in the library. It is no answer to say that the printing would involve considerable expense. The report has been ordered as a Parliamentary Paper, and should be circulated in the same way as any other Paper would be circulated.
§ THE EARL OF HARDWICKEI am afraid I cannot enter into the point raised by the noble Earl. I have only replied in the absence of my noble friend Lord Raglan, but I will communicate the tenour of his remarks to the Under-Secretary of State.
§ House adjourned at twenty-five minutes past Six o'clock, to Monday next, a quarter before Eleven o'clock.