§ Captain ELLIOTI beg the indulgence of the House for a very short personal explanation. On Wednesday last, during the Debate on the Motion of the hon. Baronet the Member for Twickenham (Sir W. Joynson-Hicks), I referred to his speech, and commented on the results which it seemed to me would necessarily follow. It would appear that, through inadvertence, I referred to these expressions of opinion as though they had been actually in fact the statements of the hon. Baronet. In particular, I find myself quoted in the OFFICIAL REPORT as saying that the hon. Member for Twickenham
desired to destroy his great old Conservative party."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 5th April, 1922; col. 2385, Vol. 152.]It must have been obvious to anyone who had heard the speech of the hon. Baronet that he had no such desire. It 239 was far from my wish to impute any such design to him, and, my attention having been drawn to the passages as reported, I have taken what I understand is the usual course to clear up as soon as possible this misrepresentation, of which I have unwittingly been guilty. I beg the indulgence of the House for this trespass upon its time, but at this moment, when controversy is reviving, it seemed urgent that this mistake of mine should be put right.