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Although > only one witness ---- Arthur C. Carty, reporter--was preg-- ent in connection with the case, the committee proceeded with the ex-- Ald. H. B. Ashplant charges mad» before the London City Council in discussion of the Gas Bill, when Mr. Ashvlant suggested that memhere at the Legislature might be bribed out of a certain fund. Mr. Carty, an experienced reporter, maintained absolutely that the re-- port as sent by him to The Globe was a correct report of what Mr. Ash-- plant had said, When exception was taken to it he had immediately seen other Council members individually and their opinions, which he had taken down in writing, were to the effect that his was a correct report.. he was Whip. _ c Ashplant Report Sustained. _ _ Mr. Carty declined to be led into venturing an opinion as to Mr. Ash-- plant's veracity or responsibility. 1 i & BR Geeupitt oo ul K AAMGe s es s EonE es en ie m s c in e mect BE o9 T Asked by Mr. Charles MceCrea: "Is he in the habit of making irre-- sponsible statements ?" Mr. Carty replied, "He is in the habit of mak-- ing statements."' L i; l ind + BB e d d t h l td dndictndicta d Herbert Penny, London Advertiser reporter, corroborated Mr. Carty's report of the Council proceedings. He and Carty, he said, had not com-- pared notes after the meeting. j OW 0 m LiL s »% a eva | m _-- _ The committee w Tuesday afternoon. Quotes from Report. Mr. Carty, on being sworn, read from The Globe his report of the Ashplant statement concerning which the Legislature ordered in-- vestigation. His report of Mr. Ash-- plant's statement during his objec-- tion to the proposed agreement be-- tween the City Gas Co. of London and the citizens was: * 'Suppose McCrea should be given $15,000 to get this through; suppose the company should take a block of this stock and distribute it among the members of the Legislature to get this through.' he commenced, when Mayor Little interjected -- a protest, declaring that he would not sit to hear the honor of the Provin-- clal legislators so impugned. . Mr. Ashplant's rejoinder was that he had not said that this would be done, but only that it could be done, and, he added, 'it is the most natural thing in the world if the company should do it.' *' Referring to the general report, Mr. Ferguson asked: Is that a cor-- rect account of what took place at the meeting? A.--That is a correct account. Mr. Carty--This article was writ-- ten within 30 minutes after the in-- cident occurred. I went to the tele-- graph office with the story. Q.--Do you take shorthand ? i A.--No. I do not use shorthand. It was a brief igcident, only three or four sentences. Q.--Did you make notes? A.--GOn, yes, I made noics, ahbso-- lutely. Mr. Ferguson--Mr, Carty has not his notes. They were destroyed. Getting Corroboration. ; @ wW. A. Wilson, Alderman W. Boss, Alderman Brighton and Alderman Ashton. I interviewed -- each -- of them. What I said was this: I read the item in The Globe to which denial had been given. I said: "This is my story of what occurred at the Council. I asked him to lis-- ten very carefully, and then tell me what he thought about it. Each man gave me his statement of whether in his judgment I had made a correct report of the meeting. Then, with this statement I got from each Alderman, before sending them to Toronto, I read them back and hadeach man approve, (each of the persons interviewed) before d4t was _ yasdidths PEsiauit: o darap ol oys y CE NOC ECC eP ECC F sent out. So these are all verifed interviews before publication, with one exception. Telling Him He Was Right. will meet again The interviews, which appeared in The Globe of March 9, were all cor-- roborative of the report Mr. Carty made of the meeting. Mayor Little had said: '"When he (Ashplant) said that the company might well give $15,000 to Mr. McCréa I at once left the meeting, and did not hear the finish of his sneech." Ald. Frank E. Harley said: "I fol-- lowed very closely the astounding statements made by Mr. Ashplant. I read The Globe renort and those are his exact wordg, stated absolute-- ly correctly." _ Ald. J. C. Wilson said: "Absolutely the statement made by Mr. Ashplant in his remarks." Ald. John Bridse--The statement as given in The Giobe is correct. Ald. G. B. Drake--Unqualifiedly what Mr. Ashplant said before the Council was exactly as reported. Ald. W. A. Wilson, Ald. W. Boss and Ald. B. F. Brighton also agrecda to the substance of the report. Mr, McCren Asks Questions. Jocularly Mr. McCrea interrupted; at one juncture, '"Please tell me! what 1 was to receive?" l A.----$15,000. A.--Yes,. I have been a reporter continually since 1918. Q.--Did he (Mr. Ashplant) appear in a representative capacity? A.--Yes. There is what is called the High Cost of Living Committee, and I believe he and Mr. Thompson are members of that committee, and they appeared under that committee. "In Habit of Making Statements." [ weiluel., L meant that such com-- panies could give sums of money to three or four solicitors, as is gener-- ally done for propaganda purposes." Mr. Carty--I asked him (Mr. Ash-- plant) repeatedly to tell me the exact sentence in which Mr. Mc-- Crea's name was used, but I could not get it. . . . I asked him this ab-- solutely dispassiona'te.ly for his ver-- sion of the story, and told him I was using exactly his story. ... . I rais-- ed another point and said: '"What did Mayor Little take offense at when he protested and left the Council Chamber?" [ °. "Uu&L tite Dill would go through. I meant that it could give such money to Mr. Graydon, or any solici-- tor, and then it occurred to me that Mr. Graydon did not speak for his client in the Legislature, and that Mr. McCrea had spoken for the company, and I brought in the name of Mr. McCrea in a purely in-- cidental way to show that he was not intended. I meant that such com-- panies could give sums of money to three or four solicitors, as is gener-- ally done for nronavanin wmi1mncms 1 he would not bg_;-e-s}pg;;ib-{: EB; any-- thing that did not appear over his own signature. @.----Was it in stock ? A.--He didn't say Mr. McCrea was to receive it. He said, suppose that he should. Mr. Carty was also taken over his interview with Mr. Ashplant, sought, he said, for the purpose of ascertain-- ing just what it was Mr. Ashplant maintained he did say at the meet-- ing. He read the interview with Mr. Ashplant, which in part is as fol-- lows: "I was arguing that if the company felt like doing it, it could give its solicitor a good commission or fee in a perfectly honest, legiti-- mate and straightforward way, to see that the bill would an throunsh. To this last query Mr. Ashplant had replied, Mr. Carty said, '"'The Mayor gets mad at me on general principles." Since then, Mr. Carty said, he be-- lieved Mr. Ashplant had stated that Q.--Are you an experienced re-- porter? Mr. McCrea--Has he such a repu-- tation in the community that when he makes statements such as you have said he did make people are likely to believe him? A.--Well, Mr. Ashplant would probably be believed by his own friends. Q.--Well, what is his general re-- putation when he makes a statement of that kind? A.--Well, I do not think that is a fair question. Q.--Is he in the habit of making irresponsible statements? A.--He is in the habit of making statements. Mr.-- Brackin (Chairman)--Re-- sponsible or otherwise. [# 4. The Chairman having ruled the question to be unfair, Mr. Carty said: "I am absolutely dispassion-- ate in this thing, and I was when I reported this thing. I did not care what he said. I was simply there we