§ Mr. Kenneth LindsayI should like to ask the Leader of the House a Question on business about the Debate next Thursday. I think it is already apparent that a large number of hon. Members wish to speak. I have looked the matter up and discovered that we have had only two days for debates on foreign affairs during this year and one was a Supply Day. I wish to ask the Leader of the House whether he will do one of two things, either give us an extra day, Friday, or else, in the interests of tidiness—which I know appeals to him in these matters—try to separate the issues so that 1863 a separate day is given for discussion on Strasbourg. Otherwise we are in the position that, at a generous estimate, there will be three to three-and-a-half hours for a large number of hon. Members to speak on matters affecting Germany, dismantling, Strasbourg and the Far East. That seems to me to reduce the Debate to something very near to a farce.
This is a non-party question and I would ask the Leader of the House if he will be generous and try to take this into consideration, because it affects the very important responsibilities which hon. Members are carrying regarding the question of peace and war.
§ The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Herbert Morrison)If I may say so, this is a rather inconvenient procedure. I made a Business statement last Thursday and I subjected myself, quite properly, to examination by the House on this matter. It is a little inconvenient if it can be raised again on every day of the week and I am bound to say that I have nothing to add to what I said last Thursday.
§ Mr. Clement DaviesMay I ask the Lord President to reconsider this? It may be inconvenient, it may be unusual, but this Debate will have to cover a very wide area. May I add that it will include matters which are not ordinarily what we used to regard as purely Foreign Office matters. It will include economic considerations between countries. Therefore, I support the plea for further time made by the hon. Member for the Combined English Universties (Mr. K. Lindsay).
§ Mr. StokesIn view of the somewhat—and I say this in a most friendly spirit—intransigent attitude which my right hon. Friend has adopted in the past and today in this matter, may I ask you, Mr. Speaker, whether it would be in Order for me to put down a Motion on the Order Paper that the Business of the House, in the interests of Private Members, be exempted at Thursday's Sitting from the provisions of the Standing Order? We can then have a vote on the subject and show the Lord President that there are a large number of us here who wish to express our opinions, and that he really is stopping us from doing so.
§ Mr. SpeakerMotions of that kind cannot be put down by Private Members.
§ Mr. Charles WilliamsMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman since when has his convenience come before the affairs of the House?
§ Mr. CrawleyWill not my right hon. Friend agree that the question of Germany and Europe, alone is at least as important as any matter now before Parliament, and will he not therefore reconsider his attitude in this matter?
§ Mr. LindsayAs the right hon. Gentleman seems inclined to sit tight on this matter may I remind him that all the other Parliaments represented at Strasbourg have had Debates on this, and we shall have had no chance of debating it now until the coming year, and possibly not then. In the first year of this Parliament we had three or four two-day Debates on foreign affairs but we have had no two-day Debates on foreign affairs since last September. This is really treating the House with scant respect.