§ Mr. R. MCNEILLI desire to call your attention, Mr. Speaker, to a matter connected with the seating arrangements in the House. Information has reached me that, in your judgment, it will be for the convenience of the House if I, and some of my hon. Friends, were to leave this bench which we have set on for a considerable time past, and were to find seats in some other part of the House. On that may I say that why I, at all events, have not taken that course hitherto is this: When the Coalition Government was formed last year, and the Leaders of the party to which I and my Friends belong joined that Government, it was not considered then necessary to have any general change in the seating arrangements of the House. Whether that was right or wrong, it is not for me to discuss. At all events, when our Leaders entered that Government we remained on these benches. Now that Coalition Government has been reconstructed. The majority of our Leaders who were in the last Government remain in this Government—[An HON. MEMBER: "Indispensables!"]—and from my point of view all that really has occurred is that one Liberal Prime Minister has taken the place of another. Under those circumstances it did not occur to me that there was any special reason why I and my Friends should go to the other side of the House. That impression was strongly confirmed when we read the report of the speech made by the right hon. Gentleman the ex-Prime Minister, in which he said that he and his colleagues were supporters of the present Government. Therefore, the right hon. Gentleman and myself and my Friends are in the same position. We are all supporters 1318 of the present Government. Under those circumstances, apart from any desire expressed by yourself, Sir, it has never occurred to me that there was any reason to cross the floor of the House, or to vacate our present seats; but nothing would be further from my desire, and I am sure of my hon. Friends also, than to inflict upon any of these right hon. Gentlemen an unwelcome proximity. Therefore, speaking entirely for myself, and possibly for some of my hon. Friends, although we should not for a moment nave thought of altering our seats, for which we have an affection, we should not persist in doing anything which was pointed out to us would be inconvenient to the House, and certainly, after the expression from you, Sir, I shall certainly try to find a seat elsewhere.
§ Mr. G. FABERAll I wish to say can be said in the words of Captain Macheath, "How happy could I be with either—"
§ Mr. PRINGLEOn a point of Order. Is every Member of the House entitled to make a statement as to the position in which he sits in the House?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe circumstances are a little peculiar. I am much obliged to the hon. Member for St. Augustine's (Mr. R. McNeill) for consenting to fall in with my suggestion. The suggestion was made for this reason. It has always been the custom of the House for Members who act together to sit together, and it has generally been found convenient. I do not think it is quite correct to say that the only thing that has occurred is that one Liberal Prime Minister has succeeded another. I think the hon. Member will admit that there is now an Opposition which there was not before. [HON. MEMBERS: "No!" and "Where?"] I certainly understood that there was an Opposition. [HON. MEMBERS: "Where?"] It seems to me only in accordance with the tradition of the House, and the usual custom and courtesy observed, to allow right hon. Gentlemen who sit on the Front Opposition Bench to have in their immediate proximity their private secretaries and others who have been in the habit of acting closely politically with them. I have not asked the hon. Member or any of the hon. Members who sit on that bench to go on the other side of the House. All I suggested was that it would be desirable that the bench immediately behind the Front Opposition 1319 Bench should be left vacant for those who wish to be in immediate proximity to the right hon. Gentlemen occupying the Front Bench.
§ Mr. McNEILLMay I respectfully put this question to you, Sir? As you have told the House that the change which you desire is on account of the formation of an Opposition by the right hon. Gentleman the recent Prime Minister, I think, for the convenience of the House, we should know where we stand. Am I to understand—do you, Sir, gather that the action of the right hon. Gentleman is to reintroduce party politics?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI am not the person to decide whether or not there is an Opposition. Events only can show that. The future alone can tell.
§ Mr. EVELYN CECILI only want to say one word as an hon. Member concerned. I have complied with your suggestion, as I think right and proper, but I should like very respectfully to submit that it is not desirable in this time of national stress that hon. and right hon. Gentlemen on the Front Bench opposite should draw any party distinction.