§ MR. SNOWDEN (Blackburn)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Mid-Derbyshire, as Chairman of the Kitchen Committee, if he or the Committee has given instructions restricting the facilities that the clerks have hitherto had to freely use the dining rooms on the same conditions as Members of the House; and if such instructions, if given, are to the effect that the clerks must use only one room and a certain table set specially apart for them.
§ MR. LEAinquired whether there were only nine members present at the meeting of the Committee at which the Resolution was passed, and whether the Resolution was carried by the casting vote of the chairman.
§ SIR ALFRED JACOBY (Derbyshire, Mid.)The hon. Member is one of the Kitchen Committee, and I think it is therefore unnecessary to take notice of his Question. In reply to the hon. Member for Blackburn I have to say, that in consequence of the unusually large demand for seats in the Members' 1432 dining room during the autumn session, the Committee have deemed it advisable, for the convenience of Members, to ask the clerks of the House to be good enough for the present to use the centre room for dining. In order that they may secure seats without difficulty, on notice being given a table is reserved for them.
§ MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)asked whether the matter was within the province of the Kitchen Committee, or whether, as a matter of fact, it did not rest either in the hands of the Speaker or of the Serjeant-at-Arms.
§ * MR. SPEAKERI think the hon. Member for Waterford is right. My attention has not been specifically called to the particular Resolution which is impugned, but I should say that it must be outside the functions of the Kitchen Committee to limit the privileges either of hon. Members or of the staff who are compelled to be in attendance.
§ ME. JOHN REDMONDUnder these circumstances I take it that the Resolution of the Kitchen Committee has no effect at all.