MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury, whether he is prepared to give the House an assurance that His Majesty's Government will abstain from proposing to Parliament any measure involving protective duties or the taxation of food.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) It is not proposed to deal with the fiscal question during the currency of the present Parliament, and the declared policy of His Majesty's Government does not, as the hon. Member is well aware, include the taxation of food.