§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)I wish to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer a question, of which I have given him private notice, namely, whether he is correctly reported in the Times to have said in his speech, at Rawtenstall the other night —
When Mr. Dillon spoke he denounced our proposals root and branch, and ho tells us plainly enough that whatever we may offer will not be accepted, because it has not been passed by the Irish leaders.
§ MR. GOSCHENYes, Sir; that is a fairly accurate report of what I believe to be quite an accurate statement. The hon. Member would, perhaps, have been more just to me if he had noticed the sentences that went before and the sentences which came after the one he had quoted, which showed that what I was speaking of were our proposals with reference to the congested districts. I consider that the hon. Member did denounce them, for he stated in the most emphatic manner—and he wont even 699 further than my remarks would imply, for he not only said that unless our proposals were passed by the Irish Nationalist Party—which I take to mean unless they were endorsed by them—but also unless they had a preponderating voice on the Boards of Management, our proposals would end in considerable failure. The hon. Member also said that if the Government do not do this—that is, accept the views that the hon. Member put forward as to the persons by whom those proposals are to be worked—then our scheme is foredoomed to failure, and that it would be useless to waste the time of the House in discussing the Bill. A second time he used the words, "Our scheme was foredoomed to failure." I thought, under these circumstances, that what I said was rather a weak paraphrase of the very violent philippic of the hon. Member.
§ MR. DILLONI claim the right to say that the words of the right hon. Gentleman are a gross misstatement of what I said. What I said was that Irish Members, who spoke for all the electors in the congested districts, should have a fair share in the constitution of the Board; and I went on to say that if the Nationalists were allowed to nominate a majority of the Board they would find men who would work honestly and endeavour to make the scheme a success.
§ MR. GOSCHENRead on.
§ MR. DILLONThe statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is absolutely untrue. It is a gross misrepresentation of the spirit of the words I used, and I consider it utterly unworthy of a political Leader to make such misstatements.
§ MR. GOSCHENI shall be more courteous to the hon. Member than he has been to me. I maintain that no one could have heard his speech without considering that my words were a perfectly fair comment upon it. The hon. Member, by taking out that particular sentence, would wish to give the impression that I was speaking of any proposals, whereas it is perfectly patent that I was speaking of the proposals with regard to the congested districts; and I consider that the words which I have used, and at which the hon. Member stopped short in his statement just now, go further, in that they are in 700 favour of the passing and administering of the Bill by the Irish leaders, and state that, unless that is provided for, the proposals in the Bill are foredoomed to failure. Under these circumstances, I regret that the hon. Member considers that I have gone beyond the limits of political controversy. I candidly state that I believed then, and I believe now, that I was giving an accurate representation of the words of the hon. Member.