§ MR. WHARTON (Yorkshire, W.R., Ripon)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade a question of which I have given him private notice—namely, whether the statement which appears in the report of the speech made yesterday by Lord Rosebery in the House of Lords that the light hon. Gentleman is a director of several public companies is correct?
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURNo; the statement is not correct, and I think it is to be regretted that Lord Rosebery should have made it without taking the trouble to ascertain the facts. During the last five years I have been a director not of several companies, but of one company in which I myself and my family were largely interested. Since my appointment to the Board of Trade I have resigned that directorship, and at the present moment I am not a director of any public company.