Seely went from the Cabinet to Buckingham Palace; when he returned to Downing Street the paper was there, but the Cabinet had broken up.

He looked at the paper, saw that it did not accurately reproduce the assurance he had verbally given to Gough, and with the help of Lord Morley he thereupon added two paragraphs (which Mr.Balfour designated "the peccant paragraphs") to make it conform to his promise.

The addition so made was the only part of the document that gave the assurance that the officers would not be called upon "to crush political opposition to the policy or principles of the Home Rule Bill." With this paper in his pocket General Gough returned to his command at the Curragh.
There the matter might have ended had not some of the facts become known to Unionist members of the House of Commons, and to the Press.

On Sunday, the 22nd, Mr.Asquith sent a communication to _The Times_ (published on the 23rd) in which he minimised the whole matter, putting forward the original pretext of movements of troops solely to protect Government property--an account at variance with a statement two days later by Churchill in regard to the reason for naval movements--and on the 23rd Seely also made a statement in the House of Commons on the same lines as the Prime Minister's, which ended by saying that all the movements of troops were completed "and all orders issued have been punctually and implicitly obeyed." This was an hour or two after his interview with the generals who had been summoned from Ireland to be dismissed for refusal to obey orders.
But Mr.Bonar Law had his own information, which was much fuller than the Government imagined.

A long and heated debate followed Colonel Seely's statement, and was continued on the two following days, gradually dragging to light the facts with a much greater profusion of detail than is necessary for this narrative.