The Commission heard the second round of witnesses from 23 October to 14 November. Chamberlain and Blackett had composed a draft Report that Chamberlain hoped would satisfy the commissioners without substantial change. The commissioners were not so amenable; some felt that the Chairman was going too fast. Sir James Begbie was restive about gold. Gillan was particularly worried about the treatment of the Government balances; he wrote to Keynes (6 December 1913), mentioning that he had outlined a statement on the subject, but although he was convinced that there was a good deal seriously wrong in the Chairman's draft, he felt it a delicate matter to criticise it wholesale.

Keynes was less diffident about approaching the Chairman. Indeed he seems to have written to Chamberlain, Blackett and Cable all at once, judging from the three replies that he received all dated 8 December. Blackett wrote confirming Chamberlain's desire to finish up the next week's meetings with little more needed than a final revise: ‘You and Gillan however seem to be likely to want more changes than this…’ Cable said: ‘You are voicing my sentiments’, and spoke of ‘watering-down and white-washing adjectives’ in the Report. Cable was ready for a sub-committee to draft a stronger document. The situation was awkward, as he put it, ‘because (confound him) the Chairman has fathered the Report’. But whatever Keynes wrote to Chamberlain must have overcome the difficulty of communication, because the reply was gracious and accommodating.