§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR,referring to the following Motion standing on the Paper in the name of Mr. Lloyd-George for the Evening Sitting—
That this House censures the action of the London and North-Western Company in declining to take into their service monoglot 962 Welshmen as labourers in the most Welsh-speaking areas of the Principality of Wales, whilst at the same time they employ in the same districts officials who are completely ignorant of the language of the people with whom they come into contact and have business relations,—said, perhaps it will be convenient if, with your permission, I put a point of Order with regard to the Resolution which stands upon the Paper first for this evening. I wish to ask you, Sir, whether it is in Order to bring forward on such an occasion a Resolution directed against the management of a private enterprise in respect of matters with regard to which it is not suggested that the managers of that enterprise have, directly or indirectly, broken either the letter or the spirit of the law?
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEOn the point of Order, may I state that I propose to modify the terms of my Resolution by moving that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the circumstances?
§ MR. G. C. T. BARTLEYIf that is the case, may I ask whether, if the Resolution on the Paper, which is in effect a censure on the action of the company, is now to be altered into a Motion for the appointment of a Committee of Inquiry? It is not a new Motion, and therefore ought to come at the end of the Motions already upon the Paper.
§ *MR. SPEAKERIf the alteration were one which exaggerated, if I may so say, the Motion set down, it would not be in Order without further notice, but as it appears to me to be one to modify the stringency of the Motion which is set down, it may be brought forward. As regards the point of Order raised by the right hon. Gentleman, I am not aware of any precedent for a Motion of this kind for an inquiry into the relations between a corporation or private firm and its servants, and in the form in which was proposed to be moved certainly grave inconveniences might have followed from a decision of this House upon an entirely ex parte statement against a company which might or might not be represented formally or informally in the discussion. But in the form in which it is proposed to be moved I am not able to say that it is within my function as Speaker to rule that it is out of Order. There may be great 963 inconvenience in a Motion relating to the matters referred to, but I do not see, in the absence of any precedent for striking out such a Motion, that I should be justified in saying that it was out of Order.