§ MR. BLACKI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Government's scheme for a Colonial Conference contemplates that the British delegates shall be empowered to entertain proposals for preferential trading with the Colonies based, inter alia, upon the taxation in this country of raw material such as wool or cotton.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe hon. Gentleman has with laudable perseverance asked me this exact Question a great many times. I have nothing to add to the Answer I have given him several times.
§ MR. SOARES (Devonshire, Barnstaple)Will the right hon. Gentleman say whether he declines to give a full and frank Answer on the ground that such an Answer might be injurious to the public interests?
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGE (Carnarvon Boroughs)May I ask whether in the last few days notices have not been issued 1180 to the Colonial Governments inviting them to a conference for next year, and whether in the invitation there is anything said on this particular point.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have no information bearing out the suggestion the hon. Member has just made to the House. It is not accurate.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGENot accurate that such notices have been sent?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURNo, Sir, it is not accurate.
§ Later,
§ MR. SOARESI wish to ask a Question on a point of order. Your predecessor, Mr. Speaker Gully, ruled that an Answer must be accepted by an hon. Member, even though such Answer was unsatisfactory, but I do not think he meant that any kind of an Answer would be acceptable. I have been looking up the authorities on the point, and the principal authority, I find, is that of Sir William Anson in "The Law and Customs of the Constitution," where he says that a Minister is bound to answer a Question unless it is contrary to the public service. A practice has grown up lately of not giving full and frank Answers.
§ * Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member must put his point of order and not make a speech.
§ MR. SOARESThe point of order I desire to put to you, as guardian of the privileges of the minority, is whether a Minister ought not in every case to give a full and frank Answer to a Question, if such Answer would not be injurious to the public service?
§ * MR. SPEAKERThe Answer is in the affirmative, but all the circumstances must be taken into consideration. If the same Question is frequently put, or Questions of a similar character are frequently put, the Minister is entitled to refer the Member to an Answer previously given.
§ * MR. SPEAKERThe hon. Member may not have thought it an Answer, but probably the Minister who gave it may have thought it a very good one.