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f panics, in my opinion, fail abso- i Intoly, and I do not think there is a 'shadow of any kind in connection with the death ot Huston resting on Mr. Backus or his comparies or his officials or associate; Privileged Statements. - ---- "fl" _..- -.. _.._,v ..-...- said in his speech brings i'ah/iaiiG to my mind that he was pointint tty Backus as the man who, directly or indirectly, had cprnpatmed, the death of Huston, and that it was murder. and I feel confident that the newspaper summaries of his speech which went to the public. and which he savs were a fair report ot his Speech, must have conveyed to the nubiio at large that he was making the charge I have mentioned." No Much-sought Papers. Concerning the documents in Hutton's possession. said to be de- sired by Mr. Backus. the commis- sion_er reports: "There is not a. tittle of evidence that E. W. Backus or any of his officials had any knowledge that these documents or any other docu- ments were in the possession of Hus- Ion, and I am unable to conceive how, by the wildest trtretctthtf imag- ination. it can be suggested that Huston had in his possession any documents which Backus or his of- Jicials had any interest in obtain- ing. " "I consider that it is clear beyond question that neither Mr. Backus nor his companies or omciAls had any motive or interest of any kind for compassing, directly or indirect- ly. Huston's Aeath; that there were no documents of any kind on Hus- ton's person in the shape of con- tracts or letters or otherwise which Mr. Backus Or any of his companies or omcia1s or associates were inter- ested in obtaining; and. that being the case, all the charges against him of his interest or that of his com- "The only official of the Attorney-, General's Department, either in the" (city or at Fort Frances, who has ibeen made thes, subject of specific 'criticism or attack is Inspector .Jeffrey. This criticism appears to 'have been prompted largely from! the fact that it is said that from: the inception of his investigation Jeffrey adopted the theory of suiéide. t 'and the complaint is that he entered l .upon his investigation with a pre- ,conceived idea that the case was one of suicide. Along with this was the i':,1,1t1f.tltivN made. which has been entirely disproved. ve that before, iJeffrey left for Fort Frances he) isought out and had a conference' "It has been pointed out, in the course of the hearings before the commission that Lewis' charges were the more dangerous by reason of the tact that they were made by him in the Legislature, in his capacity as a member and. therefore. that his statements were privileged, and he could not be called to account fpr same. Mr. Lewis has stated re- peatedly that his sole aim in making his speech in the House was to vin- dicate the memory of Captain Hus- ton from the stigma of suicide. Men must be judged by what they say and do. and not by what they say after- ward was their intention or their motive. I think the charges made by Mr. Lewis with which I have been dealing, were made recklessly, with indifference as to their truth or falsehood and without excuse or warrant. No Apology Yet Made. "I can appreciate the possibility that a man speaking in the Legislav ture in the heat of debate may be carried sometimes beyond what he intended to say. and in this case Mr. Lewis has stated that when he. rose to make his speech he did not intend to mention the name of Mr. Backus, but I have not seen any evidence at any time since the speech was made expressing anr regret on the part of Lewis for mak- ing these baseless charges: "Evidence given on this commis- sion by Mr. Bayly, Deputy Attorney- General; by General Elliott, former Commissioner of Police, and by the various officials at Fort Frances, show, that, notwithstanding the views entertained by them as to the cause of the death, the investigation into the death had been continued by them ever since, and is continu- Ing now. Finds Allegation Untrue. resu If of "I am quite Batistied that, if Mr. Lewis had been serious about his notice of motion for an order for the return of the papers set forth in his notice of motion, he would not have simply given the notice of motion and done nothing further, but that he would have adopted means of showing at least that he was in earnest and endeavoring to get action in the House on his no- tice of motion. It is quite certain, however. that beyond giving this notice of motion, he made no effort of any kind to obtain from the At- torney-General's department the in- formation that they had with re- gard to the action they had taken in investigating Huston's death. Nothing in Charges. "On March 29 Mr. Lewis gave notice of a motion for an order of the House for a return of all cor- respondence and reports in connec- tion with the investigation by Gov- ernment officials into the circum- stances surrounding the death of. Huston, including all reports made by ex-Inspector Jeffrey of the Pro- vincial Police. This order and re- turn were never made and no action of any kind was taken by Major Lewis to press it. never made any request to the At- torney-General or any omcial of the department for information or to see the Attorney-General's file. He says the reason of this was that he felt tsatiMled it would not he given to him. and that if he went to any official of the department, he would have been referred to the Attorney-General and the Attorney" General would have asked him to make his request on the order paper. Did Not Press Question. "In a matter of this kind.it is1 easy in criticize, in a general was," and use such terms as inertia. in- a'ctivit.y, inefficiency. but the fact in that in this case there are sub- stantially no specific charges against the Attorney-Generals department.. and I am convinced that a perusal of the Attorney-General's file would of itself satisfy any fair-minded man that there is nothing in these charges. "When Mr. Lewis made his charges in the House, so far as the Attorney-General's department is concecned, apparently the only in- formation he had was information which he had got from the news- papers and the Porter report. He "On the whole, so far as Jeffrey is concerned in his department as a criminal investigator, he had the confidence of those who were work- mg with him, and there has been nothing to convince me that he was not a capable and honest investi- gator. with Mr.' Harding, who was alleged to have been a Backus lawyer. I have already found that this allega- tion was untrue." Exoncratos lnsWr Jeffrey. 'Ut is probable that those who are taking an interest in this in- quiry will expect that l should ex- press my own opinion as to the cause of Captain Huston's death. and as to whether in my opinion It is a case. of murder or suicide. After a good deal of consideration I have come to the conclusion that it is neither necessary nor desirable that I should do so. However, strong an opinion anyone may have on the facts. there can be no absolute cer. minty, and various considerations have brought me to the conclusion that I can best perform my duty, [,-rrthis, branch of the inquiry, 'by simply reporting the facts." ll