§ *LORD BALCARRES () Lancashire, ChorleyI beg to ask the Vice-President; of the Committee of Council on Education whether the Director of the Art Museum is in future to be directly and finally responsible for the acquisition of art objects, as was recently recommended by a select Committee of this House, or; whether the responsibility is to be shared between the director and the new Council of Artists; whether the Council of Artists will sanction the acquisition of all art objects, and whether on questions of authenticity, art value, and suitableness for museum purposes, they will be empowered to control or override the decisions of the director, or if their functions are to be purely advisory; and; whether it will be still possible for the museum officials to take the opinion of expert antiquarians.
§ SIR J. GORSTThe answers to the alternative questions in the first paragraph are both in the negative. In I regard to the remainder of the question it is open to the President of the Board of Education to take the advice of such persons as he may think desirable on all such matters.