HC Deb 17 June 1873 vol 216 cc1062-3
MR. BOWRING

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the Tickets proposed to be issued to Members on the occasion of the Naval Inspection at Spithead in honour of the Shah of Persia, on the 23rd instant, will be transferable, as in the case of the Tickets for the Military Review at Windsor; and, whether, even if the Tickets will not be generally transferable, he will allow such Members as may be willing to surrender their own claims to transfer their Tickets to other hon. Members, to be used exclusively by the latter for their wives or daughters?

MR. GOSCHEN,

in reply, said, that there was this great distinction between the naval review and the military review at Windsor—that in the latter there would be a general distribution of tickets to others besides Members of both Houses of Parliament, which was not the case with regard to the naval inspection. If Members of Parliament were to be allowed to transfer their tickets, the practical effect would be to hand over to them the power of distributing tickets—a privilege which no other persons were to have. That was not what the House itself understood yesterday, neither would it be desirable that such should be the case. With regard to the other point, while facilities would be given to hon. Members to embark on board vessels at Portsmouth, they would have to reach that town by train as they best could.

MR. BAILLIE COCHRANE

said, that on former occasions special trains had been provided for the accommodation of Members of Parliament.

MR. GOSCHEN

said, that there had been a very general expression of feeling on the part of hon. Members that, while they were most anxious to be present on the occasion of the naval inspection, they should defray their own expenses.

In answer to Mr. BOWRING,

MR. GOSCHEN

said, it was very probable that on the closing of the list on Wednesday it would be found that the vessel appropriated to the Members of the House of Commons could accommodate some of the Members' wives and daughters, and he therefore proposed that in that case tickets for Members' wives and daughters should be ballotted for by those Members who had put their names down on the list.