§ MR. LABOUCHEREI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will lay upon the Table of the House the memorandum handed over by him to Mr. Reid, as the dean of the representatives from Australia, on the occasion of the Queen's Jubilee, to this country, in which the opinion of Her Majesty's Government was expressed in regard to a draft proposal for an Australian Commonwealth Bill, that the Imperial Parliament would think it its duty to interfere if any limitations to the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council were inserted in any such Act: and whether, since then, any further communication was make of a like character to any Governor of an Australian colony, with a view to its communication to his Ministry, previous to the arrival of the Australian delegates during the present year in this country.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe hon. Member has not correctly described the purport of the memorandum in question. It contains amendments proposed by Her Majesty's Government, and a second memorandum contained the reasons for them, but neither of them state that the Imperial Parliament would think it their duty to interfere. The probability of such interference was stated by me in conversation. I have no objection to lay upon the Table everything in these memoranda referring to the right of appeal. The answer to the second question is "No."
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies a question of which I have given him private notice—namely, whether the Government or the right hon. Gentleman has, or has had, in their possession a copy of a pamphlet by the Right Hon. Sir Samuel Way, Chief Justice of South Australia and Lieutenant Governor, in advocacy of the retention of the power of appeal to the Privy Council from the Superior Court in Australia, and, if so, whether this pamphlet will be circulated among the Members of the House before the Second Reading of the Commonwealth Bill.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe private notice of this question only reached me when I came to the House, and I confess I do not quite understand why the hon. Member could not have given the usual notice. I can only say that I personally have not seen this pamphlet; but whether it has been received at the Colonial Office or not, or what should be done with it if it has been received there, I cannot yet say.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI will ask it to-morrow.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINCertainly.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLAnd look at The Times in the meantime.