HC Deb 15 May 1900 vol 83 cc254-6

Motion made, and Question proposed; " That Mr. Houston be discharged from the Select Committee on War Office Contracts; that Colonel Mellor be added to the said Committee." — (Sir William Walrond.)

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)

I will not occupy the attention of the House for more than a very few minutes, but I think I am justified in asking how this Gentleman came to be proposed on the Committee. The motion is that he should be taken off; I want to know how he came to be put on. I cannot say anything in the slightest degree disparaging of the right hon. Gentleman who moved this motion on the part of the Government, because he gave me today something I am quite unaccustomed to receiving from the Treasury Bench, namely, a straight answer. I asked whether he was aware when he nominated this gentleman to serve on the Committee that he was the head of a firm which had extensive contracts with the Government, and he said he was not aware. I think we are justified as a mere matter of Parliamentary etiquette, when gentlemen are nominated on Committees—

* MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! The hon. Member is now proceeding to discuss a different question altogether from that on the paper. The question is whether Mr. Houston should be discharged from the Select Committee on War Contracts; the hon. Member is proceeding to discuss the question whether Mr. Houston ought ever to have been put on that Committee. I would also point out to the hon. Member that I am obliged strictly to enforce relevance, and to prevent him making any indirect attack upon the hon. Member for Toxteth Division upon this occasion, because it is one upon which it is quite obvious the hon. Member will have no opportunity of replying to the remarks which may be made.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

I must accept your ruling, and I accept it as I accept all your rulings—with alacrity and willingness. I think I might give, without in the slightest degree making any attack on the hon. Gentleman, some admirable reasons for supporting the Government in taking the hon. Member off this Committee.

* MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! Standing Order 16 provides that the question must be put after a brief explanatory statement from the hon. Member moving and the hon. Member opposing the motion. The hon. Member now says he proposes to support and not oppose the motion; therefore I am afraid he has no locus standi.

MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)

I am the hon. Member who opposes the motion, Sir.

* MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! The hon. Member began by opposing the motion.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

May I give way to my hon. friend the Member for King's Lynn?

* MR. SPEAKER

No.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

Then I must technically oppose the motion.

* MR. SPEAKER

The hon. Member cannot do that now. He would be trifling with the rules of the House.

Ordered, That Mr. Houston be discharged from the Select Committee on War Office Contracts.

Ordered, That Colonel Mellor be added to the said Committee.—(Sir William Walrond.)