KITCHEN AND REFRESHMENT ROOMS COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 10 February 1898)

§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (SIR W. H. WALROND,) Devon, Tiverton
I beg to move— That a Select Committee be appointed to control the arrangements for the kitchen and refreshment rooms in the department of the Serjeant-at-Arms attending this House; that the Committee do consist of 17 Members; that Mr. James Bailey, Mr. Broadhurst, Mr. Richard Cavendish, Mr. Cochrane, Mr. Thomas Curran, Mr. Horatio Davies, General "Goldsworthy, Mr. Jacoby, Mr. Kearley, Mr. Lafone, Mr. Llewellyn, Colonel Lockwood, Mr. Macdona, Mr. Lloyd Morgan, Mr. P. J. Power, Mr. William Redmond, and Lord Stanley be Members of the Committee.

§ *SIR W. LAWSON (Cumberland, Cockermouth)
I think, Sir, this Motion cannot be allowed to go without some observation. Last year the Chairman of this Committee informed us that they intended to do something with regard to the sale of drink in this House which the Attorney General had declared two days before was carried on, in his opinion, in an illegal manner. They said they were going to do something, and upon their stating that I made no objection to the Committee being appointed what followed? They brought in a Bill—a most amazing Bill—with regard to this matter. Of course, I cannot go into that now, but this Bill, instead of being brought on at the proper time, when we could discuss it, was brought on night after night at 12 o'clock, when it was impossible to discuss it. I do not know what the intention now is, but I should like, before this Committee is appointed, to hear from the noble Lord opposite, who, I presume, will be in the Chair again (of course, we should all wish that), some statement as to what the intention of the Committee is, whether they intend to carry on the sale of drink 348 within the precincts of this House in a manner which the Attorney General has declared in his opinion to be illegal, or whether they intend to take any steps to alter that state of things. If they do intend to carry on the sale of drink here after the opinion which the Attorney-General has expressed, I think it will be—if this is a Parliamentary expression—very little short of a public scandal. On this ground I shall certainly object to the appointment of the Committee until we have had some statement upon this matter.

§ A LORD OF THE TREASURY (Lord STANLEY,) Lancashire, West Houghton
Sir, the answer to the question of the hon. Baronet is very simple. If the hon. Baronet will allow this Committee to be appointed, at their very first meeting they will tell him what course they will take.

§ DR. TANNER (Cork County, Mid)
The noble Lord opposite is always kind enough to give us the very best intentions in the fewest possible words. A certain number of Members, some of whom happen to be here to-night, may propose to mark their appreciation of those intentions by at the proper time raising an objection to the undue amount of money spent upon this Committee. It is not my intention to raise any objection to the personnel of this Committee, but I would suggest to the noble Lord that, instead of persisting in trying to appoint this Committee to-night, and putting us to the trouble of a division, he should postpone it till Monday or Tuesday, when the material matters of fact can be gone into. The noble Lord, as Chairman of the Committee, receives £2,000 a year, whereas his predecessor received only £1,000, and with all the intensified wealth which he enjoys at the present time, I do ask him, at any rate, to give our friends, not merely those sitting upon these Benches, but those sitting opposite—an opportunity of, at any rate, conversing over this matter.

THE HON. V. DUNCOMBE (Cumberland, Egremont)
I beg to move that the Question be now put.