MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I wish to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that the Amendment standing in his name to the Motion of the hon. Member for Banffshire asking the House to express its confidence in the Administration, he will consider the propriety of giving a day for a debate of such importance?
§ MR. MARKHAMOn a point of order, I wish to call your attention, Mr. Speaker, to the fact that the Prime Minister's Amendment was handed in after you had 185 left the Chair last night. Last year I handed in to the Table an Amendment which was refused on the ground that the Speaker had left the Chair. I wish to know whether it is in order for the clerks at the Table to give special privileges to Ministers of the Crown.
§ *MR. SPEAKERAs the House knows, the clerks at the Table are not in the habit of making distinctions between Members of the House, and I regret that the hon. Member should have made an unfair attack upon them. I know nothing about the case of the hon. Member last year. What happened last night was that the Prime Minister brought to the Table his Amendment and handed it in before I left the Chair; but as the Clerk of the House found parts of it somewhat illegible the Prime Minister was writing out those parts at the Table more clearly when I left the Chair. In those circumstances, it would have been improper and discourteous if the Clerk of the House had refused to receive the Amendment.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURWith regard to the Question of my hon. friend the Member for King's Lynn, the Motion standing in my name is partly of the nature which he has ascribed to it. But it is also, and perhaps mainly, a reasoned form of putting the previous Question, for which I hope to convince the House to-night there is ample reason. Until I see further grounds for taking the course suggested by my hon. friend, I certainly could not pledge myself to adopt it.
MR. GIBSON BOWLESThe right hon. Gentleman will consider, I hope, that it is he himself who raises this question of confidence.