A PLEA FOR PUBLICITY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."
SIR,—The Home Secretary has stated in the House of Commons that the report by a Departmental Committee of the Home Office on the use of lead compounds is not likely to be presented for three or four months. That committee has been in existence for nearly two years, so that when the report is published nearly thirty months will have passed since the inquiry began. It is a private inquiry, and the public has no means of knowing what goes on behind the closed doors unless a member of the committee discloses information. Not long ago Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck-, who is a member of the committee, stated in a speech at Lancaster that the committee is going to report in favour of the total prohibition of lead in paint, and that "this would be carried through before long." More than a year previously —in June, 1911—it was stated that the committee would probably recommend the prohibition of the use of white lead and red lead in paints, or the adoption of stringent regulations. We have therefore the astonishing spectacle of a secret committee continuing to sit for a year and a half after an intimation has been made that the committee's mind is made up. If the committee's decision has been made, then the investigation ought to close; if no result has been attained, then surely some explanation is due to the public of the utterance of Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck.
—I am, Sir, &c., W. WOOD. 52 Lebanon Park, Twickenham.
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