In the House of Commons on Thursday week Mr. Asquith
moved for a Select Committee to inquire into General Maurice's letter impugning the accuracy of statements made by Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Bonar Law. His motion, he said, was not a Vote of Censure. He had had nothing to do with the writing or publi- cation of the letter. He assumed that the Government still thought, as Mr. Bonar Law had said two days before, that an inquiry should be made into allegations affecting the honour of Ministers. The only question was whether a Select Committee would not do the work better and more quickly than a Court of Honour composed of two Judges, suoh as the Government had proposed. Mr. Asquith recalled the Parnell Commission as an unsatisfactory experiment, and urged that a Select Committee was to be preferred. Mr. Boner Law, interrupting, said that every member of the House was either friendly or opposed to the Goverment, and must therefore be prejudiced. Mr. Asquith asked whether it was right or decent to suggest that there were not five members who could be trusted to give a true decision on a pure issue of fact.
