§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (West Ham, S.)I desire, Mr. Speaker, with your permission, to call the attention of the House for a minute to a personal matter. On the 20th of September the Home Secretary, in speaking concerning the employment of military in certain colliery districts, made use of the following words, as reported in The Times of next-day:—
I am sorry not to see in their places to-day some hon. Members who have been going about denouncing me and circulating what I can only characterise as a pitiful and ridiculous fiction—namely, that Her Majesty's Government deliberately sent out, without warning or cause, the armed forces of the Crown in districts where industrial disputes were going on in order that they might take the side of the coal-owners and crush the miners. Where are the men who made these statements? It was well known that this matter would form the subject-of discussion. Why are they not in their places? It is a very easy thing to go about the country speaking to excited audiences when you are safe from refutation and reply; but it is a very different thing and the only proper thing to come here to the House of Commons, and on the floor of this House, face to face with the Minister you condemn, to fight the matter out.Now, Sir, the impression has gone abroad that those of us who were speaking about the Government sending soldiers into the strike districts knew that the question was to be raised in this House on the 20th of September, and that, with that knowledge, we failed to turn up and state on the floor of the House what we had been saying elsewhere. I desire to say, Sir, speaking for myself, that I had no knowledge whatever, direct or indirect, that the question was to be raised on that or any other occasion. I endeavoured to raise the question before leaving the House to go to the meetings in Yorkshire, but the whole time of the House was taken up by the Government for another matter. Had I known the question was to be raised I certainly would have been here, because, whatever faults I may have, want of courage is not one of them. I trust the Home Secretary will be prepared either to justify the statement that we knew the question was to come up or to take the only other honourable course open to him.
§ MR. ASQUITHI do not know whether I shall be in Order, inconsequence of the appeal which the hon. Gentleman has made, in saying a few words. But if I 118 am, I should like to state what was in my mind at the time I made the statement. The authority on which I made it was twofold. In the first place, the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Thanet (Mr. J. Lowther), some four or five days before the Debate on the Appropriation Bill, courteously gave me notice of his intention to raise the question, informing me at the same time that he had sent written communications to certain hon. Members, including the hon. Gentleman opposite.
§ MR. ASQUITHThen I beg pardon. He sent notice of his intention to certain Members. Further, I observed in the newspapers a widely-circulated statement two or three days before to the same effect. I, therefore, thought I was justified in assuming that the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Keir Hardie), who had taken such an active interest in the question, was aware that the question would be raised on that occasion. Of course, I accept his assurance that that was not so.
MR. J. LOWTHERI think I ought to state the Members to whom I sent notice of my intention to raise the question. They were the Member for the Normanton Division of Yorkshire (Mr. Pickard) and the Member for the Ince Division of Lancashire (Mr. Woods). To these gentlemen I wrote letters upon the Monday, stating that it was my intention on the Wednesday following to call the attention of the House to this subject on the Second Reading of the Consolidated Fund Bill. I placed these letters, failing to obtain the addresses of the hon. Gentlemen, in the hands of the recognised channels of communication between Members on both sides of the House, and I was assured that the proper steps would be taken for their delivery. With regard to the hon. Member (Mr. Keir Hardie), who has just spoken, it was not until the Wednesday morning that my attention was called to the speech which had recently then been made by him. I wrote a note to him, but I was not able to ensure personal delivery, the hon. Member being, as I understood, out of town. I left it in charge of the doorkeeper of the House to be given to the hon. Member if he appeared. So that, as far as the hon. Member himself was concerned, I did 119 not give him notice, and he was not amongst those to whom I referred in my private communication to the right hon. Gentleman as being notified of my intention.