§ MR. ASHLEYI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he will explain why the Under-Secretary of State for War has been allowed to remain a director of the Artisans', Labourers', and General Dwellings Company, Limited, a company which has paid, from 1879 to 1904, dividends of 5 per cent. per annum to its shareholders, and whose ordinary stock stands at 111.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI understand that the Artisans' Company is not an ordinary commercial company. It devotes the whole of its profits after paying 5 per cent. to its shareholders to keeping down the rents for the working classes who are its tenants. It, therefore, seems to me to be a philanthropic society, but a microscopic investigation has revealed to me the fact that a director does receive a very modest remuneration, and therefore I have advised the noble Lord to resign his directorship.