§ *MR. SPEAKERsaid it had been ruled frequently that an unopposed Return could not be objected to merely on the ground that it was after midnight.
§ MR. LOUGH (Islington, W.)said they desired some explanation of the Return.
§ MR. DALZIEL (Kirkcaldy Burghs)asked whether it was not competent for hon. Members to ask for information with regard to a Return such as this, involving as it did public expenditure and work in various departments.
§ *MR. SPEAKERWhen an hon. Member asks for information and the Government consents to give it, it has never been the practice to object. There is no reason why an exception should be made in this case.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)asked why the matter was brought before the House at all if they had no power to object.
§ MR. WHITLEY (Halifax)asked whether Members could not inquire why other particulars were not to be included in the Return.
§ *MR. SPEAKERIt is perfectly open to hon. Members if they wish for other information to ask for a further Return. Have hon. Members any substantial objection to the Return being granted?
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLsaid he objected on the ground of the expense to the. public.
§ *MR. SPEAKERThe Government has undertaken that responsibility. If hon. Gentlemen have any substantial objection to make to it, I will not take it now. But it must be understood that an unopposed Return cannot be objected to simply because it is after twelve o'clock.
§ The Motion was then postponed.
§ On the Motion that the House do now adjourn.
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNOR (Liverpool, Scotland)asked the Patronage Secretary to the Treasury whether any hon. Gentleman had yet been appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland.
§ *THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Sir A. ACLAND-HOOD, Somersetshire, Wellington)I have no information to give to the House on the subject.
§ MR. DALZIEL (Kirkcaldy Burghs)asked whether anybody had yet been appointed to the Presidency of the Board of Agriculture. That Department had for some time been without a head, to the great inconvenience of hon. Members interested in questions relating to agriculture.
§ MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL (Oldham)reminded the right hon. Baronet that on a previous occasion he declared that no resignation had been tendered on behalf of the late Chief Secretary, whereas only three days later the Prime Minister stated that he had at last yielded to the repeated appeals of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Dover that he might 1040 be allowed to resign his office. The right hon. Baronet gave a very emphatic denial on the occasion in question. He ventured to think that such an answer did not show that regard for the facts which the House desired to see in one holding so responsible a position.
§ *SIR A. ACLAND-HOODsaid he could quite understand the natural impatience of the hon. Member for Oldham at not having yet received a letter from the Prime Minister offering him an office in His Majesty's Government. He strongly repudiated any imputation upon his good faith. He had given the House all the information he possessed. As to the Presidency of the Board of Agriculture, he was not in a position to give any information.
§ MR. WINSTON CHURCHILLsaid he had no desire to make any imputation upon the good faith of the right hon. Baronet, but he certainly did make an imputation as to the accuracy of his facts.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)called attention to the habitual absence of the Prime Minister from the debates in the House. Disraeli, Gladstone, Smith, and Harcourt, gentlemen who knew what was due to the House of Commons, were always in their places until the rising of the House so as to be able to answer any Questions that might arise. The present Leader of the House, however, whenever he knew a question was to be raised, beat a strategic retreat. That was a pretty position for the Prime Minister to occupy, and he thought it did not show that respect to which the House of Commons was entitled.
§ Adjourned at sixteen minutes after Twelve o'clock.