The constitution of the Committee of Inquiry, as soon as it became known, called forth a deal of comment from the discontented service it was called on to examine into. The general feeling was one of distrust from the very beginning. Both the telegraphists and the sorters were some time considering whether to trust their destinies into the hands of such a committee, whose only redeeming feature seemed the presence of Lord Tweedmouth, generally accepted all round as honest and disinterested in a judicial capacity. The leaders of the various associations were especially dubious. It was not the independent inquiry they had looked for; but then gradually the feeling set in among the members that, come what may, the inquiry could not result in rendering their position worse. They might get nothing; but there was a chance of getting something. W. E. Clery of the sorters’ organisation endeavoured from the start to combat this feeling among his followers, and warned them that the committee being constituted as it was, it would be only a waste of time and energy preparing evidence. He urged that only on one condition should they accept its authority and its recommendations in their case; and that was, that the question of civil rights and the dismissals of their chairman and secretary should be considered and adjudicated on. At an early stage of the proceedings, it was sought to ascertain whether these two important questions would come within the purview of the committee, and also to obtain consent for their chairman, W. E. Clery, to be accepted as a witness in respect to this part of their case.