§ MR. CAVENDISH BENTINCK (Whitehaven)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether Her Majesty's Government will advise Her Majesty to appoint to serve on the Royal Commission on Westminster Abbey an architect who is not a member of the Royal Academy of Arts; and whether the Commission will have power to consider the expediency of removing or altering the sites of statues and monuments which have been erected in the Abbey?
§ * MR. W. H. SMITHThe Government are not prepared to act on the suggestion of my right hon. Friend, as they are satisfied that the Royal Commission, as at present constituted, is perfectly competent to advise on the delicate and difficult questions submitted to them, which are by no means limited to architectural considerations. With regard to the second question of my right hon. Friend, I should hold that "the inquiry into the present state of the Abbey" must include the sites of existing statues and monuments, and that the Commissioners would not be precluded from making any suggestions with regard to them which they might deem expedient.