§ MR. T. E. ELLIS (Merionethshire)asked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, Whether the population of districts of Scotland and Ireland, where the Government makes provision for bi-lingual instruction, and for the utilization of the home language of the children, is comparatively small; whether his attention has been drawn to the Report of the De- 1345 partmental Committee on Welsh Education, in which is stated that,
out of a population of 1,426,514 in Wales and Monmouthshire, no less than 1,006,100 habitually speak Welsh;and, whether he can state to the House the reasons why he should refuse to the million Welsh-speaking population of Wales the educational rights and advantages which are accorded to the small Gaelic-speaking population of Scotland?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT (Sir WILLIAM HART DYKE) (Kent, Dartford),in reply, said, that, assuming the facts stated in the Question to be accurate, the inference suggested in the latter part of it involved matter of argument which, he thought, it would be more convenient to deal with on the Estimates.