(b) That the members of the Everton F.C. Board not present at the said informal meeting had been consulted by telephone and had, with the exception of Mr. W. C. Cuff, agreed to the course of action stated above. Mr. Cuff had pointed out that the action was contrary to Rule 41, but this view was not communicated to the other Directors. (c) That the decision made by the Everton F.C. Directors in response to the F.A.'s com- munication noted in (a) was communicated by an Everton Official to the Press before the F.A. could have received the information (The first announcement appeared in a Liverpool paper on Monday morning, April 1st.) (d) That the Everton Board had chosen to assume that, because the F.A. had released Ever- ton players for certain matches on behalf of War Charities at Easter, Rule 41 had been suspended; this assumption was made in spite of the fact that no official notification had been received to that effect. This attitude was persisted in even after April 6th, when the Army authorities informed Mr. Green (Everton F.C.) that The Football Association had notified them that Rule 41 had not been suspended. (e) That the Everton Board considered their refusal to comply with the F.A.'s orders con- cerning Mercer to be justified as, in their view, the players from the Everton Club had been selected to play for the F.A. on an unreasonable number of occasions. (The actual record of attendances of Everton players in F.A. Charity Matches is: (i) England XI v. Welsh XI at Wrexham, 18th November, 1939—Mercer and Lawton. (ii) England XI v. Scotland XI at Newcastle, 2nd December, 1939—Greenhalgh, Mercer and Lawton. (iii) F.A. XI v. Yorkshire XI at Sheffield, 25th March, 1940—Cook. No Everton players played for the F.A. in twelve other representative matches). (f) That although the Everton F.C. Directors denied that pressure had been brought to bear on Mercer to play for Everton F.C., the following extract from a letter written by Mercer to the F.A. appeared to suggest to the contrary:— "I assure you that it would be a great pleasure for me to take part in the game, only the attitude which my club have adopted makes it very awkward for me to decide." Also the following extract from a letter from the Officer Commanding Mercer's Unit:— "The matter is therefore left between Everton and yourselves, and since Mercer pro- bably feels in honour bound to Everton by long service, he would act under instruc- tions of Everton." (g) That a complaint made by the Everton Board that between April 2nd and 12th the F.A. had failed to take the necessary action in the matter was inaccurate, as during the stated period frequent telegraphic, postal and telephonic communications had passed between the F.A. and the Army F.A.; the Army F.A. and Mercer's CO.; The F.A. and Mercer's C.O. It was also disclosed that the Everton Club were informed by the Army authorities that in their opinion Rule 41 still obtained. (A telegram from Everton F.C. to The F.A. on 7th April indicated this). A report of the communications was made to the F.A. War Emergency Committee on Friday, 12th April, and the Secretary was then in- structed to telegraph to Everton and Mercer as follows:— Everton F.C.—" Decided Mercer must play for England Wembley tomorrow not