§ * MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Post master General, whether the Mayor of Sligo has made representations to the Postmaster General concerning the postmistress of Athlone; what is the nature of such representations; and will he state the conclusion at which the Postmaster General has arrived?
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)asked whether it was in order, having regard to the fact that the Mayor of Sligo was a Member of the House, that a Question should be asked as to any communications between an hon. Member and a Minister of the Crown?
§ * MR. SPEAKERI was not aware, nor were the Clerks at the Table I understand, when this Question was put down, that the Mayor of Sligo was an hon. Member of this House—I believe the hon. Member for Leitrim. But knowing now that he is a Member of this House I certainly think the Question is one which ought not to have been put on the Paper—["hear, hear!"]—because the Question really asks a Minister what private communications have been made to him in the course of his duty by a Member of this House. That is a kind of Question which I think ought not to be asked, and, certainly, if I had known when the Question was referred to me, that the Mayor of Sligo was a Member of this House, I should have refused to allow it to be put on the Paper.
§ * MR. W. JOHNSTONMay I be allowed, as a matter of personal explanation, to say that the hon. Member had a Question concerning the postmistress of Athlone upon the Paper, and when I told him I would traverse it, he took it off the Paper, and it was only in consequence of that that I put this Question upon the Paper.