HC Deb 02 March 1905 vol 142 cc295-6

On the Motion for the adjournment of the House.

MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL (Oldham)

asked the Parliamentary Secretary of the Treasury whether he had any information to give the House as to the reported resignation of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and the reported intended resignation of the Lord-Lieutenant. It was important that the House, should be informed of these impending changes, especially at a time when the political situation was so critical, because for that very reason it was doubtful whether the Government had the right to make great appointments abroad which might have the effect of prejudicing the future very gravely and of carrying colonial and foreign affairs into extremely controversial regions. It was most important that the House should have the earliest information of the impending reconstruction, for the twelfth or fourteenth time, of the Cabinet.

*THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Sir A. ACLAND-HOOD, Somersetshire, Wellington)

said that any question as to the reconstruction of the Government should obviously be put to the First Lord of the Treasury. With regard to the other question, he had to say that there was no truth whatever in the report that either the Lord-Lieutenant or the Chief Secretary had tendered his resignation.