HC Deb 06 March 1905 vol 142 c429
MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, having regard to the number of Ministers of the Crown who are public company directors, he will place the gentlemen whom he may recommend to the Crown for the Ministerial offices now vacant under any, and, if so, what conditions with reference to the holding during their tenure of Ministerial office of directorship in public companies.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The only condition that ought to regulate a Minister of the Crown in regard to company directorships is the common-sense one that no Minister of the Crown ought to hold any office which interferes with the proper discharge of his duties as a Minister of the Crown.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

In that case will Lord Cawdor, at the head of a great spending Department, continue to be chairman of the Great Western Railway Company?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

Of course not.