§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if the Government is still determined not to afford banks the necessary legal facilities for closing and deferring their financial obligations on the day of the Royal Wedding, notwithstanding the repeated representations as to the sinister effect of such refusal, the danger to public property thereby involved, and notwithstanding that the 4th section of the Bank Holiday Act ex- 365 pressly enables the required Order in Council to have purely local application, and imposes no obligation upon any factory, shop, or establishment other than a bank in such locality to suspend for a moment its operations?
§ MR. CREMER (Shoreditch, Haggerston)May I ask whether the Government are in possession of any information which justifies the statement of the hon. and gallant Member in the question as to danger to public property?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEIn answer to the hon. Member for Shoreditch, I have to say that the Government have no information to the effect to which he refers. In regard to the question of the hon. and gallant Member for Sheffield, I would remind him that only a few days ago the Chancellor of the Exchequer fully explained the views of the Government on the matter. I have nothing to add.
§ MR. BONSOR (Surrey, Wimbledon)Was not a Petition handed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by bankers unanimously asking that this holiday should be given?
§ SIR W. HARCOURTI stated that the other day the right hon. Gentleman consulted my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary as to the police. I added that any apprehension of public danger in the matter was unfounded.