§ Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKEOn a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. With your permission I desire to refer to a matter which I raised at Question time yesterday. It will be within your recollection and the recollection of the House that the Noble Lord the Member for Hitchin (Lord Robert Cecil) asked a question of the Prime Minister which he prefaced with these words, "whether his attention has been called to the answers 2034 given last Thursday by the Minister representing the Foreign Office." The point I wish to put to you is whether it is in order for any hon. or right hon. Member to ask a question, and in that question to allude to a previous answer given to a question put to a Member of the Government if that question had been answered in the same Session?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe usual rule is that questions should not refer to questions which have been answered during the course of the current Session. In this particular case I took the view that the real question was in the last paragraph of the Noble Lord's question which was, "whether he will arrange that in future full information on foreign affairs shall, so far as is consistent with public interests, be given to the House." That was really the question which the Noble Lord wished to put, and my mind was rather directed to that. The first part of the question which the hon. Member describes as a preface I looked upon as in the nature of a preface or an illustration in order to point the moral of the question. Perhaps I ought to have been more strict.
Lieut.-Colonel MURRAYIs it your ruling that it is inadmissible for an hon. Member to draw attention to question and answer given in the same Session in order to give point to his question at the end?
§ Mr. SPEAKERIt occurred yesterday, and I passed it over. My attention was not sufficiently directed to that particular part of the question. I think it is desirable to stick to the old rule which has always been maintained.