§ MR. C. J. DARLING (Deptford)I would ask to be allowed, by the indulgence of the House, to offer a very short personal explanation arising out of a matter which has already been referred to. I do not desire to add anything to what has been said by the Attorney-General, but in consequence of the action taken by the hon. Member for South Donegal (Mr. MacNeill), many comments have appeared on the circumstances under which I accepted the office I lately held. Among others appeared this statement, to which I desire to call attention, in the Daily News of to-day:—
The statement we publish in another column, that Mr. Darling received no pay as a Commissioner because the Chancellor of the Exchequer refused it, is highly creditable to Sir Michael Hicks Beach as vigilant guardian of the public purse.[Laughter.] All I desire to be allowed to say is that that statement is as untrue as it is offensive. [Cheers.] I say that no application was ever made to the Exchequer. The matter never came under the view of the Exchequer, for the simple reason that I expressly in writing stipulated that I should not be offered and should not take any kind of fee or reward whatever. [Cheers.]
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERPerhaps the House will 201 allow me, in consequence of what has passed, to corroborate what the hon. and learned Member has stated. I hold a letter from the Lord Chancellor, requesting that the expenses of the hon. and learned Member should be paid, which was obviously intended not to include any fee. ["Hear, hear!"]