§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (Merthyr Tydfil)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he can now fix a definite date upon which the Committee stage of the Unemployed Workmen Bili will be taken.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe condition of public business does not enable me to give any pledge on this subject.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether we can have an assurance that the Committee stage will be taken before the session comes to an end?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI think the hon. Gentleman will feel that the pledge he asks for, even if it could be given, would be a very inexpedient one to give. What is eminently desirable is that the Bill should pass. Nothing is gained by passing the Committee stage without the rest of the Bill.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEMay I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman will give the Bill preference over the Redistribution Resolutions as a matter of urgent importance?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe hon. Gentleman appears to think the Redistribution Resolutions of no importance. I differ from the hon. Gentleman.
§ MR. PIRIE (Aberdeen, N.)I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, in view of the pledge which I think the House and the country understood him to give that the Unemployed Bill would be passed—if the word pledge has any meaning at all—the Government will do their best to pass the Bill?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI certainly desire to pass the Unemployed Bill, as I have always desired; but I do not know in what sense the hon. Gentleman uses the word pledge. I use it in its accepted signification.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEMay I ask whether the Prime Minister has received communications from the demonstrations in favour of the Unemployed Bill which have now been held all over the country, and whether, in view of the public demand for the Bill, he will give it precedence over other subjects for which there is no public demand and which are relatively of less importance?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have received resolutions about this Bill from many parts of the country and from many bodies, including the Landon County Council, who appear to take an adverse view of some of its main provisions; but when the hon. Gentleman gives his comparative estimate—
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEThe country's comparative estimate, not mine.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURHis comparative estimate, supported by what he thinks is the country's estimate, he must allow me to take a different opinion.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEI will raise the question again.