§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has undertaken to include in the Estimates for 1906–7 a sum of £20,000 for the building fund of the University College of North Wales, to which fund £61,000 have been subscribed locally; if so, whether any conditions have been attached to the proposed grant; and whether he will make provision in the Estimates for similar grants to the Universities and University Colleges of England in the same proportion to the local subscriptions.
§ MR. ASQUITHI have undertaken to ask Parliament to make a grant of £20,000 to the building fund of the College when the money is actually required for the scheme and subject to the condition that a similar sum has first been spent upon it from other sources. No part of this grant will have to be provided in the Estimates for 1906–7. Similar grants have already been made to the two other Welsh Colleges of like character. No such grants have in the past been made to University Colleges in England, 777 and, as the annual grants to these institutions were largely increased—as I think most properly increased—by the right hon. Gentleman when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, I am not, as at present advised, prepared to recommend a change of policy.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINI do not in the least complain of the grant the right hon. Gentleman makes to Wales, Tout I shall call attention to the subject on the Estimates in order to secure an equivalent grant for English colleges.