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: 179. The reason for the long session (three hours from 1.30 a.m to . 4.30 a.m.) was not because the five Ministers were conducting & detailed investigation, but because of the long time it took to get hold of Mr. Clogg oe . and Mr. Profumo at that hour of night. The actual drafting of the personal . : statement and discussion of it only took about one and a half hours; The reason for it being done at that hour was the desirability in the intergst of good government that these very damaging rumours should be scouhied at once without being given further prominence over the week-end. The Gipught in all their minds was not, “ Is Mr. Profumo’s story true? "—for they accepted it as true coming from a colleague—but rather, “ He ought to make a personal statement in the House in the morning so as to refute these rumours”. . Pre ad f - (vii) A Point in Mitigation © _ 180. There is one thing which should be said in mitigation of Mr. Profumo’s conduct. He did not seek to excuse himself by reason of the very exceptional circumstances of that night. But his wife made this statement to me: “ This is terribly important. I would like to make a statement about this: I just simply know that, if it had not been for the extraordinary concatenation of circumstances of timing that day, and that early morning, Jack would never have made that statement. I was there and I know about the sleeping pills and the tiredness, and the fact that we were really groping round the house, letting in strange people and getting through loads of reporters still- on the doorstep. I sat up in the drawing room with the cat on my lap until he came back at 4.45 a.m. and he said ‘ This is the statement *.~.. Pam sure that, had we had time, as a husband and wife, instead of . . . with a time gun.” a + . . on : : , ace + | viii) The Knowledge of the Five Ministers: ele ee we 181. [do not consider it part of my duty to assess the responsibility of Ministers to the House. That is a Parliamentary matter upon which I would not seek to venture. But I do consider it my duty to set out the knowledge which the Ministers had at the time-when they drafted and approved the personal statement made by Mr. Profumo, the considerations which were present in their minds, and the steps they took to satisfy themselves of its “A The two Ministers who had most to do with it were the Chief Whip and the Attorney-General. The Solicitor-Genera! had a fair amount, but more as assisting the Attorney-General. Their evidence before me disclosed these matters : mo, : ; (1) They knew the rumours about Mr. Profumo, which, stated shortly, were these: (a) the rumour as to immorality that Mr. Profumo had had an illicit association with Christine Keeler; (b) the rumour as to security that the Russian Ivanov had also had an association with ber about the same time; (c) the rumonr as to the perversion of justine that Mr. Profumo had helped her to disappear. Only this Last TUMMEE.23 tO the disappearance had been raised in the House that night, byt they felt that all the rumours should be dealt with in the statement. = 39 . ee ne me ae Bi seine nt creme meer erent rrmmrmnennc oc ammrmme 6 em ~