§ 47. Mr. BILLINGasked the Prime Minister whether he will assure this House 914 that, so long as he remains the Leader of the Government, he will limit his recommendations to His Majesty for honours, dignities, and titles for rewarding valour and/or virtue, and/or direct services to the State; and whether, in all cases where these honours are conferred, he will cause to have published in the "Gazette" the full reasons for their bestowal?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI cannot add anything to the previous answers which I have made on this subject.
§ Mr. BILLINGWill the right hon. Gentleman state that in future, if it transpires to him, as a member of the Government, that honours and dignities are being sold, that he, at least, will not be a party to it?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWMost certainly!
§ General CROFTMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, as a matter of fact, in another place Lord Curzon did not promise that there would, in future, be given a reason as to the bestowal of honours, and whether it is not the fact that in the New Year honours in most cases no real reason whatever was given?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWA Resolution was passed in another place which was accepted by the Government, and the reasons were in every case given. If they were not given in the Press, that was not the fault of the Government.
§ Mr. PRINGLEShortage of paper !
§ 49. Mr. BILLINGasked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been called to a statement by Mr. Oswald Stoll to the effect that he had been repeatedly approached by political touts of the Liberal party, who claimed to be vendors of knighthoods at prices ranging from £10,000 to £12,000 per knighthood; and whether, having regard to the necessity of upholding the political honour of the Liberal party, he will consult with the Law Officers of the Grown as to the desirability of instituting proceedings against Mr. Oswald Stoll for making statements calculated to hold up to ignominy the ancient and honourable order of knighthood?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI naturally have no information on this subject, but I cannot imagine that there is any foundation for the allegations made in the question.
§ Mr. BILLINGIs not a statement such as this calculated to hold up knighthood in this country to ignominy; if so, does the right hon. Gentleman not think that a statement of this description in reference to the Liberal party is one in which action should be taken in the interests of the purity of public life?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWIt all depends upon the importance to be attached to such a statement.
§ Mr. PRINGLEIs the right hon. Gentleman not aware that a book written by the gentleman named in this question was circulated amongst the members of the Liberal Ginger Group, and will he not apply to the Junior Lord of the Treasury, the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Pratt), as to the source of the funds whereby that book was circulated?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI know nothing about the- book.