Typed 'Research Defence Society' document, urging the British Home Secretary Herbert J. Gladstone to issue the Report of the Royal Commission on Experiments on Animals, with the signatures of the twenty-three signatories.

Foolscap bifolium (leaf dimensions roughly 32 x 20 cm): 3 pp. The letter itself is of fifteen lines, on the recto of the first leaf, with five signatures beneath it and the other eighteen on the following two pages. On aged and lightly-creased paper, with chipping to extremities and traces of glue from previous mounting on the blank reverse of the second leaf. A central vertical crease has been strengthened with a thin strip of archival tape. Founded in 1908 by Stephen Paget to defend the use of animals in scientific experimentation, the Research Defence Society is still in existence. The present item urges the Home Secretary to 'exercise all [his] influence to hasten the issue of the Report' of the Royal Commission on Experiments on Animals. It gives a brief account of the Commission since its appointment in 1906, ending 'it is now nearly a year and a half since the Commissioners ceased to hear evidence: but they have not yet issued their Report'. The Society considers 'this long delay [...] contrary to the public interest, and [...] likely to prejudice the public mind'. Reproduced, with a covering letter by Paget (as Honorary Secretary), in a letter to The Times of 27 May 1909, with a list of the signatories (given here as they appear on the document in square brackets): 'the Earl of Cromer ['Cromer'], president; the Hon. Sydney Holland ['Sydney Holland'], chairman of committee; the Duke of Abercorn ['Abercorn'], Lord Avebury ['Avebury'], Lady Bliss ['Florence Bliss'], Lord Robert Cecil ['Robert Cecil'], Lord Cheylesmore ['Cheylesmore'], Sir Savile Crossley ['S Crossley'], the Hon. Walter Guinness ['Walter Guinness'], Sir Edwin Ray Lankester ['E Ray Lankester'], Sir Frank Lascelles ['Frank C Lascelles'], Mr. Frederick Macmillan ['Frederick Macmillan'], the Earl of Malmesbury ['Malmesbury'], Sir Patrick Manson ['Patrick Manson'], the Duke of Montrose ['Montrose'], the Dean of St. Patrick's ['J. H. Bernard | Dean of St. Patricks | Dublin'], Lord Rothschild ['Rothschild'], Mrs. Scharlieb ['Mary Scharlieb'], Professor Starling ['Ernest H Starling'], Sir Reginald Talbot ['Reginald H Talbot'], Sir Frederick Treves ['Frederick Treves'], the Duke of Wellington ['Wellington'], and the Bishop of Winchester ['Herbert E Winton:'].' The signatures of Abercorn, Cromer, Holland and Treves are written at the foot of the first page, with the other nineteen signatures on slips of paper cut from letters, laid down with one on the first page, twelve on the second and six on the third.