§ MR. TOMLINSON (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any communication has reached him with reference to a meeting of the Board of Management of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Miners' Permanent Provident Society, held on Saturday, the 16th instant; whether he is aware that it was unanimously resolved at that meeting that the Miners' Federation of Great Britain has no authority to speak on behalf of the Miners' Permanent Society, of whose 59,000 members only a small part belong to the Federation; that the deputation to the Marquess of Salisbury was fully authorised; and that an account of the action of the Miners' Federation with regard to employers' liability from time to time should be forwarded to the Marquess of Salisbury, as set forth in an accompanying statement; and whether he has himself received a copy of the accompanying statement alluded to in the above resolutions?
§ MR. ASQUITHI have received a communication and statement to the effect suggested in the question. I observe that the resolution referred to proceeds from the Board of Management, which I believe appointed and helped to constitute the deputation. It is the authority of this Board to speak on the question of contracting out on behalf of the miners which I understand to be impugned by the Miners' Federation.