§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGE (Carnarvon, etc.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General whether Welshmen who can use their native language only are disqualified from serving on juries in their own country; whether this disqualification extends to men of other nationalities resident in Wales who are not conversant with the Welsh language, in which a considerable proportion of the evidence in civil and criminal proceedings in the Principality is given; whether a witness, is not entitled in the Courts of Law of this country to give his evidence in his native language if he states that he can more accurately express his mind in it; and whether any distinction in this respect is drawn when that language happens to be Welsh?
SIR R. WEBSTERWelshmen using their own language are not disqualified from serving on juries. Nor assuming them to be otherwise qualified, are men of other nationalities. As regards the last two paragraphs of the Question, I must refer the honourable Member to my answer in July 1897, to the honourable Member for Carnarvon, to which I have nothing to add.