CIVIL SERVICES AND REVENUE DEPARTMENTS ESTIMATES, 1914

§ Mr. POLLOCK
When the Debate was interrupted I was asking the hon. Gentleman who represents the First Commissioner of Works one or two questions, not by way of hostile criticism, but rather for the purpose of elucidating one or two further facts which I believe will be of interest to the House and to the country. I hope the hon. Gentleman can see his way to give an assurance to the Committee that during the period of the necessary work, and before it can be commenced, steps will be taken to retard the process of deterioration which is, I understand, at present going on. Another point which I want to ask him about is this: If I follow the statement he has made we cannot expect the whole of this work to be completed in a period of less than six years. I do not understand the 1250 hon. Gentleman suggests that of necessity six years will be required for the work, but the six years is put as the extreme limit to which it can go. During the whole of that period it will be necessary to take up a certain amount of the paving of Westminster Hall in order that the structure necessary for the purpose of getting at the roof may be placed in situ. Will it be possible to make some arrangement so that the use of Westminster Hall can still be reserved, because it is not only a show place: it is from time to time used, and I do not like to contemplate the possibility of the abandonment of its use during the whole of those six years. We have had to do without it entirely for the last year for a very good reason. But I hope the hon. Gentleman will be able to give the assurance that there will be some use of Westminster Hall during this long period, when it may be necessary from time to time to give receptions to foreign ministers and visitors, and have the like functions in which the place has played so very important a part.
Another question which I want to ask is this: Will the construction of this new steel roof be carried out from within or from without? I am not quite sure I followed the proposals, but I think a word or two on this point from the hon. Gentleman representing the Office of Works may be of interest by way of additions to the clear statement he has made. If this work is to be carried out from within it seems it will be impossible to make any use of the hall during the whole of that time, and under these circumstances I venture to suggest to him it might be possible to carry out the reconstruction from without, and make it possible to reserve the privileges which the public and Members of the House enjoy in the use, or the partial 1251 use, of the hall during the process of reconstruction. I have put forward all these points, not by way of criticism at all, but simply by way of asking the hon. Member to supplement his clear statement, and in the hope that he will be able to give some sort of assurance which I know would be appreciated by the House and by the country on these matters.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT
I am rather sorry I did not hear my hon. Friend's speech delivered earlier in the evening, but I think I already heard the greater part of it when I accompanied him up the ladders to the height of the roof. There is one point I wish to urge upon him strongly, and through him, on those responsible for sanctioning the Grant of money in this Vote. It is certainly a very large amount of money that is proposed to be spent on perpetuating and renovating this architectural monument. The roof cannot be renewed; the present roof cannot be made serviceable. The steel framework will be the real roof, and the object of this expenditure will be to preserve this decaying timber fabric for the future. I must say I think in this case the expenditure even of so much as £70,000 is expenditure that is justifiable. This roof is one of the most remarkable architectural monuments in this country, and one of the supreme triumphs of architectural skill in this country, and I think it is desirable that it should be preserved if it was only to be an object lesson to Government Departments in the future, and to those who have responsibility for the designing of Government offices which are now being put up, or may be put up in the future. What is the supreme merit of this roof? It is, I think, that it adheres throughout in every timber of it to the line of structural necessity. Those who built the roof were not concerned in pretending that they were doing something else. The architects who designed the new War Office were rather ashamed of the fact that they were building an office to accommodate a thousand or so clerks, and they pretended that they were building a Greek temple. The striking failure of the architecture of modern Government buildings is the fact that the architects have all been chiefly concerned in disguising the real structural purpose of the building, and copying some ancient style, pretending they were erecting a building of a different character to what it really was. That is the merit which this 1252 roof has, and this is the lesson which it teaches to architects and those interested in art and the artistic side of buildings. Although £70,000 will be spent upon renovating this roof, a knowledge of its beauties and merits, and even a knowledge of its characteristics, will still be concealed from the vast majority of people. I think it would be a pity, when we are undertaking this large expenditure, that we should not try to do something to make a fuller and more complete knowledge of the remarkable qualities of this roof available to the general public and to ourselves. From what I saw to-day my appetite was whetted, and I am inspired to ask that much fuller information should be supplied. I believe that the inquiries which have been conducted by the architects who have been engaged on this work have resulted in the acquiring of a very large amount of interesting information. I believe that a large number of interesting drawings and plans have been prepared. Some of them are on view in the Tea Room, and we can judge from the few on view there of the extraordinary interesting character of those drawings. I suggest that the Report which is published should be of the fullest possible nature, and that as many as possible of these drawings—[Interruptions.]—some of them of a nature which would appeal even to the futurists on the bench opposite, whose political principles seem to be of a futurist nature also. I suggest that as large a number as possible of these extremely beautiful drawings which have been prepared should be published in the Report, which will, no doubt, be submitted. I would ask the hon. Member to use his utmost efforts to secure permission to publish a large number of these drawings.

§ Mr. WALTER REA
Before this Vote is passed, I think there are one or two questions which my hon. Friend ought to answer with regard to the £10,000 for provision of additional accommodation for Members in the House on the upper floor, which apparently is a part of the House which has never been explored by Members—
It being Eleven of the clock, the Chairman left the Chair to make his report to the House.
Resolution to be reported upon Monday; Committee also report Progress; to sit again upon Monday next.

CIVIL SERVICES AND REVENUE DEPARTMENTS ESTIMATES, 1914–15.