events it is certain that the majority of the Committee allowed
themselves to be persuaded to refuse to allow any statement to be
read; but to avoid the appearance of pointing this expressly at
me, the form adopted was a resolution to adhere strictly to
precedent, the Committee being then unaware that the precedents
were on my side. Accordingly, when I appeared before the
Committee, and proposed to read my statement "according to
precedent," the Committee was visibly taken aback. The Chairman
was bound by the letter of the decision arrived at to allow me to
read my statement, since that course was according to precedent;
but as this was exactly what the decision was meant to prevent,
the majority of the Committee would have regarded this hoisting
of them with their own petard as a breach of faith on the part of
the Chairman, who, I infer, was not in agreement with the
suppressive majority. There was nothing for it, after a somewhat
awkward pause, but to clear me and the public out of the room and
reconsider the situation IN CAMERA. When the doors were opened
again I was informed simply that the Committee would not hear my
statement, but as the Committee could not very decently refuse my
evidence altogether, the Chairman, with a printed copy of my
statement in his hand as "proof," was able to come to the rescue
to some extent by putting to me a series of questions to which no
doubt I might have replied by taking another copy out of my
pocket, and quoting my statement paragraph by paragraph, as
some of the later witnesses did. But as in offering the
Committee my statement for burial in their bluebook I had made a
considerable sacrifice, being able to secure greater publicity
for it by independent publication on my own account; and as,
further, the circumstances of the refusal made it offensive
enough to take all heart out of the scrupulous consideration with