§ Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINI beg to ask the Prime Minister a question, of which I have given him private notice, namely, why the Resolution, which was to make it plain, that the proposals of the Government with regard to the Veto of the House of Lords were "without prejudice to, and contemplate in a subsequent year, the substitution in our Second Chamber of the democratic method of representation," does not appear on the Notice Paper, and when it will be communicated, to the House? For the language of my question, I am indebted to the Prime Minister's speech.
§ The PRIME MINISTERThe right hon. Gentleman, I think, has not studied my language with perfect care. I have refreshed my own memory, and what I said on 28th February was this:—
We skill present our proposals in regard to the relations between the two Houses of Parliament in the form of Resolutions.I went on to say:—These Resolutions will. T hope and believe, he both few and simple. They will affirm—I am speaking now in general terms—the necessity for excluding the House of Lords altogether from the domain of finance. They will ask this House to declare that, in the sphere of legislation, the power of Veto, at present possessed by the House of Lords, shall be so limited in its exercise as to secure the predominance of the deliberate and considered will of this House within the lifetime of a single Parliament.Then I went on in most carefully chosen language, because I have become very careful in these matters in the use of language, for I have had a kind of lesson this Session, to say, not of the Resolutions, but—Further, it will be made plain that these constitutional changes—that is the changes contemplated by the Resolutions—are without prejudice to, and contemplate in a subsequent year, the substitution in our Second Chamber of the democratic method of representation.That language was carefully chosen in order to leave the Government with a perfectly free hand, either to embody that proposition in a Resolution or to make it plain in some other way.
§ Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINAre we then to understand that the Government do not propose to submit to the House, even in outline, any suggestions for the reform of the Second Chamber?
§ The PRIME MINISTERNo, certainly not If the right hon. Gentleman will be good enough to wait till this day week, when I am going to propose that the House shall resolve itself into Committee, I shall carry out the pledge I then made and make perfectly plain what the position of the Government is.
§ Lord H. CECILNo resolution will be proposed?
§ Mr. ASQUITHNo.