§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That a sum, not exceeding £3–1,700, be granted to His Majesty, to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which "will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1915, for Houses of Parliament Buildings." [Note.—£32,000 has been voted on account.]
§ Colonel LOCKWOODI want to ask the hon. Member who represents the authorities on this occasion, first of all, whether the Estimates include money for the recommendations made in the early part of last year by the Kitchen Committee. A Committee was set up for structural alterations, and they drew out certain schemes and forwarded them to the hon. Member. The Board has acceded to the minor alteration for which we asked, and I should like to know if it has been done out of maintenance. Secondly, the Board of Works informed me in a letter in August that no provision for these alterations had been made in the Estimates for the current year, 1913. I want to know whether in these Estimates the First Commissioner has made provision for the supply of a range downstairs, and of a vacuum cleaner for the dining room, the Bmoke room, and the corridor. These are 1200 absolute necessities. They have been provided in the new Government offices. There they have every modern appliance suited in every way for the requirements of the members. I confess it is a great deal owing to the fact that we are living in an old House that is ill adapted for its requirements, that we have not these modern appliances, but at the same time I think these alterations recommended by our Committee are perfectly possible, and have really been practically promised. The range is a very old one the consumption of coal is enormous, and it really is not adapted for modern requirements. Unless hon. Members are comfortable in the House, you are very unlikely to get business done with that celerity with which Ministers, at all events, would like to see it done. They have already the vacuum cleaner at the top of the building. It is an enormous saving of labour, and is almost a necessity in a public building. All you have to do is to have a further length of pipe carried from this floor where it is in daily use, to the dining room below'.
We made a great point in our recommendations of the centralisation of the dining room and staircase. At present all the food has to be carried the whole length of the corridor; it is very tiresome, and gets in the way, and the traffic from these two rooms in and out of the service room is through one door. The result is very detrimental to the service, besides 1201 being disagreeable to Members. There was another recommendation that we should change the present Strangers' Dining Room for the present service room. The Strangers' Dining Room is very hot and uncomfortable and in every way inferior, and we recommended that it should be changed for the one on the Terrace, which is now occupied as a serving room. That would be very much to the convenience of Members and those who come to see Members on business or pleasure and dine here. That and the range are the two principal alterations which I want to impress upon the hon. Member, and in regard to which I want him to make me a promise. I will not say a definite promise, because no man ever gets a definite promise from a Minister The first thing a Minister is taught is never to give a definite promise. I have, at all events, extracted sufficient from him to say fairly that I was led to expect these alterations would be carried out as soon as they possibly could be.
I do not wish to allude to any private conversations I had with the hon. Member, but I think I may fairly say that I understood a rearrangement was going to be made of the moneys devoted to the alterations in the House of Commons. Of course, it would not be fair if we were to be expected on the Kitchen Committee to carry out these expensive alterations that have already been promised out of future moneys to be devoted to our use. I confess that the arrangement of the dining-room will be an expensive job, but it will, at all events, conduce enormously to the convenience of Members. The First Commissioner or someone has placed in the Tea Room a portrait of a new tea room which he has designed. I think it is to take the place of the present staff bar, and work that way. It is an extremely pretty plan, and I have nothing to say against it. We should be only too glad to have it, but I think the other alterations should have priority over it, because one concerns the whole House and the other concerns only the Tea Room. The other alterations are absolutely necessary for the comfort of this House and of Members generally. An attack was made the other day upon those who provide milk for this House because a number of bacteria were found in it. But we charge nothing for these bacteria, and if various ill-disposed things are found in the milk, it is not by the wish of those who endeavour to serve you. It is necessary, in the interests of economy, safety, and the comfort of the 1202 Members, that we should get the range asked for in the kitchen, that these alterations in the Strangers' Dining Room should be made, and that the vacuum cleaner, which has proved of great advantage to the railway companies, should be brought into use at once. I press this upon the attention of the hon. Member. He has shown himself extremely kind in the way in which he has received our representations, and therefore I do not feel that I am preaching to deaf ears. I know he cannot go beyond the Estimate allowed him by the Treasury, but I would rather make the point, as to the allocation of the sum of money, that the Committee should not be put in the position of having to carry out structural arrangements, which have been already practically promised, with moneys which are only to be provided for us in the future.
§ Mr. WEDGWOOD BENN (Lord of the Treasury)I have listened with great interest to what has fallen from the right hon. and gallant Gentleman, and I am happy to inform him publicly what I told him privately, that in the money allowed for new works this year, in the Houses of Parliament Vote, there is a large sum, part of which will be put at the disposal of the Kitchen Committee in addition to the sum they ordinarily have from the Maintenance Works Vote. Which of these plans shall take priority is not a matter for the decision of the First Commissioner, but rather for that of the Kitchen Committee, of which the right hon. Gentleman is Chairman, and I hope we shall be able to come to some arrangement for the application of the money which is provided. I should like to deal at some length with one very important item which appears on the Vote this year—I mean an item of £10,000.
§ Mr. WHITEHOUSEI am sorry to interrupt the hon. Member, but contrary to practice he is making his speech now. Of that I make no complaint, but I rise to ask whether we shall have the benefit of the hon. Member's reply to our detailed criticisms later on, especially in view of the fact that private business is to betaken at 8.15?
§ The CHAIRMANIt is quite customary for a Minister to make his statement first.