ABSTRACT
On June 1st, Bonar Law, who was acting as Leader of the House at the time, referring to the Mesopotamia Papers, in the Government's name conceded the principle of publication of papers on the Dardanelles. The soldiers can very easily be dealt with by court martial but, as the Mesopotamia and Dardanelles Commissions Act provided for complete indemnity to witnesses, and much of the evidence was given by the persons impugned, the Report and its evidence cannot be used as evidence in a court of law. Bonar Law made it in the House of Commons, and had to get it from him directly it was read to take it to Curzon in the House of Lords. Lord John Russell resigned when he found that the Roebuck Committee of Inquiry 'into the condition of the Army in the Crimea' could not be resisted. The Commission demanded that produce the minutes of the War Council, Dardanelles Committee, and War Committee.
