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instructed to appoint, you tran and wh a hover for the allegation. When it was decided by the Secretary of State Ithak a Comer vitti should he appointed, His Excellency's anxiety was that the Committee should set to work as speedily as possible. At the first ensuing meeting of the Legislative Council he announced his intention of appointing a Committee consisting of the Chief Justice as Chairman, the Attorney-General, The Honourable Mr. Chater, yourself, and Mr. Wodehouse, and the return of the Chief Justice from leave was considered indispensable.
Some preliminaries had been arranged, and time was spent in making those appointments.
5. Neither at the time of His Excellency's announcement of the persons he intended to appoint, nor for long afterwards, did you offer any objection or suggestion, and it was only when all the preliminaries had been completed that you explained to His Excellency that the appointment of the three official members, exclusive of the Chief Justice, was not in strict accordance with the terms of the instruction from the Secretary of State. His Excellency did not, and does not, think it likely that the Secretary of State intended his phrase of "one or two other Government Officers" to be rigidly interpreted to exclude the appointment, and so probably the real intention was