HC Deb 20 February 1907 vol 169 cc855-6
*SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)

asked what steps were to be taken with regard to ballot for Motions on going into Committee on the Army Estimates.

MR. WALTER LONG (Dublin, S.)

And in the event of the debate on the Address finishing to-night, what will be the business to-morrow?

*MR. KEIR HARDIE

Will the debate on the Motion now under consideration be finished at a reasonable hour to enable a discussion to be taken on the unemployed question, seeing that this may be the only opportunity we shall have for a long time to come?

SIR H. COTTON

Is there to be no discussion on Indian affairs. Seeing that this is the only occasion—

MR. SPEAKER

Order, order.

MR. GEORGE WHITE (Norfolk, N.W.)

What facilities will be given for the Amendment down on the Paper in my name?

MR. ASQUITH

said the ballot for Army Motions would be taken the next day. The statement on the Army would be made by his right hon. friend the Secretary of State for War on Monday. It was proposed to take Civil Service Supplementary Estimates to-morrow. It was essential for financial reasons that the Address should be passed at to-night's sitting, and although, to prevent mishap, they proposed to suspend the eleven o'clock rule, there were no sufficient grounds, in the opinion of the Government, for asking the House to sit up late. The manner in which the time was to be employed rested entirely with the House. The debate on the Amendment now under discussion was, in the view of the Government, though no doubt full of dialectical and psycho- logical interest, not of a very practical character and, so far as the Government were concerned, after his right hon. friend the President of the Board of Trade had explained, as he would at an early hour, their attitude, they did not, as at present advised, propose personally to contribute to its further prolongation. If the division on this Amendment was taken at a reasonable time, no doubt another Amendment might be taken up. He observed that there were no less than thirty Amendments on the notice paper, and it rested entirely with Mr. Speaker, and not with the Government, to select which should be taken.