§ MR. LOGAN (Leicester, Harborough)I wish to ask the President of the Board of Trade a question of which I have given him private notice — namely, whether his attention has been called to The Times report of a speech made by the noble Lord the Member for South Paddington at Liverpool on Friday last, in which the noble Lord is made to say that the Labour Bureau was established by the President of the Board of Trade of the late Tory Government; that the same Minister appointed Mr. Burnett to that Department, and instituted the Board of Trade Labour Gazette; and that the whole new machinery was brought into existence by the late Tory Government. I wish further to ask if he did not himself originate the Labour Bureau and appoint Mr. Burnett as Chief Correspondent of the Department; also when the Board of Trade Labour Gazette was instituted, and when it was first published?
§ MR. MUNDELLAI have only received notice of the question since coming into the House, but I have no difficulty in answering it. In 1886, when my right hon. Friend was Prime Minister, the late Mr. Bradlaugh gave notice of his intention to move for the establishment of a Labour Bureau, and I stated to Mr. Bradlaugh that the Government would accept the Motion. They accepted it accordingly, and I, as President of the Board of Trade, had the honour of initiating the establishment of that Department. I also appointed Mr. Burnett to his present office. The Board of Trade journal was established by me, and Mr. Burnett's Reports have been published in that journal from that 1822 time to the present. The Board of Trade Labour Gazette is not yet in existence, but I expect it will be about the beginning of next month. From beginning to end of the whole paragraph the noble Lord has been entirely misinformed; there is not a single accurate statement in it.
§ LORD R. CHURCHILL (Paddington, S.)I quite recognise that I made a mistake, and I apologise for having done so. I had no references on the subject at hand, and was obliged to trust to recollection.