HC Deb 03 March 1904 vol 131 cc80-1
MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, having regard to the public interest in the subject, he will now take some means of putting the public in possession of his pamphlet in advocacy of protection, which was placed before the Cabinet contemporaneously with his published pamphlet on "Insular Free Trade."

MR. BALFOUR

There was no pamphlet such as the hon. Member refers to, and I have never advocated protection in or out the Cabinet.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

May I, as s, matter of personal explanation——

*MR. SPEAKER

It is difficult to see how a personal explanation arises on this answer.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

I wished to explain that I should not have put the Question had I not been fortified by a speech of the late Secretary of State for India.

*MR. SPEAKER

That is not a personal explanation. The hon. Member should be more careful when claiming to make one.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

With all due respect, Sir, I think every Member who puts down a Question is responsible for seeing that it is well founded, and I only wished to state my authority for this Question.