§ At the conclusion of Questions.
§ VISCOUNT TURNOURrose, and said:— Mr. Speaker, I espy strangers.
§ *MR. SPEAKERThe House has twice pronounced an opinion on the matter to which the noble Lord calls my attention. I think it must be taken that the House has decided that, for the present at least, that part of the House in which the noble Lord spied strangers is not inside the House. What the eventual decision of the House may be is another matter, but for the present, 351 until the House has had an opportunity of discussing the matter, I must take it that the House has already decided that that portion of the House is not within the precincts of the House.
§ MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)May I call your attention, Sir, to Standing Order 273, which says that, if at any sitting of the House a Member takes notice that strangers are present the Speaker or Chairman must forthwith put the Question that the strangers be ordered to withdraw?
§ MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.)asked whether the House having decided on two occasions to tolerate strangers in the House, they had not still to see whether the House would tolerate them on a third occasion.
§ *MR. SPEAKERI am fully alive to the mutter, and I do not think anything further need be said.
§ SIR FRANCIS LOWE (Birmingham, Edgbaston)asked whether it was not the fact that that part of the House in which strangers had been spied had formerly not been excluded from the House itself. He understood that the reason why the Speaker disallowed this Motion to be put was that that part of the House was not within the House. It had never been decided by Resolution of the House that the scats under the Gallery should be excluded from the House.
§ *MR. SPEAKERThe hon. Member did not follow the ruling I gave. I have nothing to add to what I have said.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR (City of London)asked the Prime Minister whether, after the ruling just given, he did not think it in the highest degree expedient that the House should soon have an opportunity of dealing with this question. He held that the matter could not be allowed to remain for long in suspense.
§ MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.)asked whether the Prime Minister was aware that the part of the House referred to had boon generally vised by Members to get a quiet slumber.
SIR H. CAMPBELL BANNERMANI think it is a matter that ought not to be unduly delayed. I am sure we have no disposition to defer the opportunity for debate beyond what is reasonable.
§ VISCOUNT TURNOURsubmitted that, in accordance with the Standing Order, the Speaker had no power but to put the Question that strangers be requested to withdraw as soon as an hon. Member had called atttention to their presence.
§ *MR. SPEAKERI do not think it was over intended that the Standing Order should be applied in the way the noble Lord seeks to apply it. If it were so applied, although the House has pronounced against the view of the noble Lord, he would be entitled to raise the same question day after day until the end of the session. That would be a great straining of the Standing Order, and I am sure I strain it less by the interpretation I have put on it.
§ VISCOUNT TURNOURsaid he had not before espied strangers. He asked what would happen if there wore introduced on to the floor of the House a stranger whose presence hon. Members on his side of the House objected to. Would it be out of order for an hon. Member to spy strangers?
§ *MR. SPEAKERIn the case of any stranger finding a place on the benches of this House the attention of the House should be at once called to the fact, and I should put the Motion on notice being taken of it. But the action of the noble Lord in pointing particularly to the exact place which has already been the subject of consideration and division in this House led me, I think rightly, to believe he was raising the same question which was raised the week before last.
§ MR. CLAUDE HAYasked whether the House was to understand that Standing Order 273 was practically repealed.
§ * MR. SPEAKERThere is no Standing Order 273. There are only ninety-six Standing Orders. The hon. Member is really referring to Standing Order 91. On that I have nothing to add.