§ No justice of the peace shall act as chair man or deputy-chairman of any general quarter sessions of the peace for any county unless his election by the justices of the peace for the county has been approved in writing by the Lord Chancellor:
§ Provided always that nothing in this Section shall prevent any person from so acting who was elected before the passing of this Act.—[Sir Henry Slesser.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ Sir H. SLESSERI beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."
I think this is a proposal that is very much overdue. There really is no reason at all why, when we have decided to have qualified lawyers to sit as Recorders in boroughs, we should leave the important functions of County Quarter Sessions to the mere accident of a vote. I raised this question on the Second Reading of the Bill, and was told by the right hon. Gentleman in charge of the Measure that he would give a courteous consideration to my suggestion. I have no reason to suppose that that courteous consideration has not been given, therefore I am really moving in order to learn from the Government what decision they have come to on this matter. It might well be said that it is difficult for the Lord Chancellor to tell whether a particular person who had been proposed to be elected as Chairman of Quarter Sessions was or was not suitable, and that he has not at his command the necessary information to come to a decision on that point, but I really think the difficulties are exaggerated. 110 Surely, while preserving to the Quarter Session their ancient right to choose their own Chairman, the Lord Chancellor is not devoid of such assistance as to the competence of the sort of persons who are likely to be elected, but that he could, through the usual channels, inform himself whether the person was or was not likely to be a competent person. I always took the view that the mere fact that the matter had to go for the approval of the Lord Chancellor would make the Quarter Sessions very careful not to select an incompetent or unsuitable person.
It is no good saying, as some hon. Members may, that Quarter Sessions can be relied upon to choose competent persons to act as chairmen. Experience has shown that they cannot always be so relied upon. There are all sorts of considerations which urge Justices at Quarter Sessions to elect particular chairmen. A man may be a very competent sportsman, he may have lived for a very long time in the district, he may be altogether a very good fellow, but it does not follow from that that he is going to make a good chairman for dealing with different points of law to address a jury at these Courts. As it happens, in this Bill, side by side with my proposal, there is the Government's proposal very considerably to extend the powers of Quarter Sessions, and I am sure hon. Members will realise that the chairman of Quarter Sessions has the duty of directing juries upon the law, and the suggestion that a person is competent to direct another upon the law when he has no law himself is like the blind leading the blind, and it frequently has happened that the blind have led the blind in Quarter Sessions, and that has involved that the victim has had to be taken out in the Court of Criminal Appeal. It really 111 behoves the Government to point out what argument there is against laying down sound qualifications for a man who has to direct a jury, not on facts, but on the law that he has to administer. It would never do to have Judges popularly elected, at least that is my view, though I believe in certain parts of America the opposite experiment has been tried, and has sometimes failed. But everyone is agreed that that would not be a good method of carrying on judicial work. Yet that is precisely the method which, by this accident of leaving Quarter Sessions entirely to control the election of their own chairmen, we employ at Quarter Sessions. I have heard people who condemn the idea of electing Judges, approve of the election of chairmen of Quarter Sessions in counties, and they are exactly the same people.
The mere accident that they do not receive a salary I am sure does not affect the question in the least. They are in fact discharging a judicial function. They are performing important judicial functions, and under this Bill they are to perform even more important judicial functions than they have ever done before. I hope, therefore, I shall not be met with a mere negative, and if there is any defects in my proposal, the purpose of which is not so much to give the Chancellor or my right hon. Friend or any other potentate control over these matters, but to see that some standard of qualification is laid down for the chairmen of Quarter Sessions—I hope it will be explained why, if my proposal is unsuitable, in the interval which has elapsed since the Second Reading, some other method has not been devised by the Government. It is the business of the Government to discover methods for dealing with this matter. We cannot go on increasing the work of Quarter Sessions, increasing the difficulties of their chairmen and the complications of the law which the chairman has to consider and on which he has to direct the jury, and at the same time be indifferent as to the capacity of the chairmen who have to do the work. And whether the proposal be rejected this year year or not it is inevitable that the time will come, when we are giving Quarter Sessions something which formerly used to be exercised solely by a Commissioner of Assize and a Judge of the High Court, when we must say, 112 "This machine must be efficient. We must have a person for this work no less competent than the person who will have to do it by the mere accident that the offence happened to be committed within a borough." If I commit a crime within a borough, I know that I shall be brought before one of my hon. and learned friends at the Bar and receive, no doubt, all the consideration which so competent a person could give me. If I happen to commit my crime in a country district, I shall have no such guarantee. That seams to be an indefensible position. I hope, therefore, the Government will really consider what can be done in the matter. There is no difficulty in finding persons absolutely suited for the work. In every county there must be many justices who are fit to be chairmen of Quarter Sessions. My proposal leaves untouched the right which all of us who are justices would cherish to choose our own chairman. It does not appoint a chairman from the central authority and put him over us. It merely asks that, while leaving us the right to choose our chairman, there shall be a power vested in the central authority, the Lord Chancellor, to see that we do not make an utterly incompetent choice.
§ Colonel WEDGWOODI beg to second the Motion.
It has always been the ambition of my life to be a Justice of the Peace and sit in Quarter Sessions, but I am afraid my well-known views on law and order will for ever debar me from that distinction. But I have studied the whole history of our system of local jurisdiction, and I remember years and years ago, before my hon. and learned Friend was a Law Officer of the Crown, the old struggles there were to get Stipendiary Magi6trate3 instead of Justices of the Peace on our borough benches, and in those days everyone with an ounce of understanding of the question supported the idea of sub stituting for the great unpaid men who might be paid, but who, at any rate, knew their business. This new Clause is a small step in the same direction. It says that, at any rate, those people who are selected to be Chairmen of Quarter Sessions shall have the imprimatur of the Lord Chancellor that they know something about the law The ordinary Justice—there must be many even on the benches behind me—does not know much about the law in the sense that the Law 113 Officers know the law. He may have a rough-and-ready method of getting at justice, but in the Chairman of Quarter Sessions you want to have a man who understands the question as put before him by trained lawyers. At present, accident decides who is to be the supreme Judge in Quarter Sessions. By this Clause we ask that when Quarter Sessions select their Chairmen and Deputy-Chairmen they shall submit those names to the Lord Chancellor and get his approval in writing of their fitness to be Chairmen. I do not think that is asking too much. If you think of the fights we had in the old clays to secure Stipendiary Magistrates, and that this is a small step in the same direction for the country districts, I think we shall have considerable support for the Clause on all sides of the House.
One other point. My right hon. Friend is a great historical student, and he will remember that in the old days when justices of the peace were first appointed, in the early days of the century, there were only two in Staffordshire, for instance. They gradually increased in number, getting in the country knights to the number of sometimes a dozen for a county like Staffordshire. Then the Government not merely added to the County Bench the knights and the squires and the landed gentry of the county, but they put on two or three justices of the King's Bench or of the Common Bench, and they put them as being of the quorum who were the trained justices, and they stipulated that where a justice sat on the body of Quarter Sessions there should be a sufficient number of the quorum who knew something about justice on the Bench to make their action legal. Unfortunately as times went on every justice, however ignorant he might be of law, was described as of the quorum, until now every justice of the peace is of the quorum. Exactly the same principle that urged our ancestors to insist on having a small element of trained people on the County Bench should at present urge us to see that the Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of Quarter Sessions are also men who may be mere country gentlemen, but who at any rate have shown by long experience on the Bench, or by early training for the Bar, that they are fitted to be justices—as fitted as stipendiary magistrates are in the Borough Courts.
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI should like to disabuse the minds of the right hon. and gallant Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Colonel Wedgwood) on one point. He is already a justice of the peace, and as a Privy Councillor he can sit on any County Bench. The Government have considered this question, as I promised the hon. and learned Member for South Leeds (Sir H. Slesser) on the Committee stage, and, on the whole, after the full consultation which I have had, we cannot see our way to accept this Amendment. It is all very well to say that the Government ought to do this, that and the other, but the hon. and learned Member has not given us any real evidence that the present system is bad. If he could come forward and tell us that the Court of Criminal Appeal had made remarks time after time about the stupidity of chairmen of Quarter Sessions, or if he could tell us that the number of appeals from the chairmen of Quarter Sessions was much greater than the number of appeals from Recorders, there would be something in his case. He has not attempted to do that. He has merely told us that he wants the Lord Chancellor to decide this question of the appointment of chairman. After a free election has taken place by his own brother magistrates, who know the man far better than the Lord Chancellor can know him. the hon. and learned member desires that the Lord Chancellor should have the right to say, "You, gentlemen, who have sat on the County Bench for years with Mr. So-and-so, and who know him as a man, as a lawyer, he may have been a High Court Judge, have elected him as chairman of your bench, with the full responsibility which rests upon you of electing the best man. I, the Lord Chancellor, am called upon, not knowing the man and not knowing the circumstances of the Bench, to approve or veto your choice."
Consider who are the chairmen of Quarter Sessions at the present time. Several are His Majesty's Judges, several Recorders, several County Court Judges, several stipendary magistrates, several practising barristers, several barristers who have been called to the Bar but who do not actually practice, and several others are experienced as magistrates either in administration at home or who have served well in great administrative duties in the overseas Dominions 115 and Colonies. Those are the kind of men who are appointed chairmen of Quarter Sessions. They have done their work remarkably well. There is no complaint in regard to them. The right hon. and gallant Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme says, quite frankly, that this is a step towards paying the chairmen of Quarter Sessions. He says that he would like to put them into the same position as Recorders or Stipendiary Magistrates. After all the experience I have had, I would not be prepared, and I am sure that after the experience of most hon. Members they would not be prepared, to support a proposal to pay the chairmen of Quarter Sessions.
I think it would be far better than asking the Lord Chancellor to veto the appointment of chairmen—a very invidious thing—to put the appointment of the chairmen altogether into the hands of the Lord Chancellor. But that is a very serious position. As Home Secretary I have the appointment of the Stipendary Magistrates in London and the appointment of Recorders throughout the country, and it is a very grave addition to the labours of the Home Secretary. If you are going to put a similar burden in regard to the appointment of chairmen of Quarter Sessions on the shoulders of the Lord Chancellor, I am bound to say on behalf of the Lord Chancellor, with his assent and at his request, that it is a burden that he does not wish to be put upon his shoulders, and it is a burden which he does not think he could adequately carry out. In dealing with the appointment of Recorders, one knows from one's past experience a good deal about members of the Bar, and one can consult the Attorney-General or the Lord Chief Justice. Any Judge is only too pleased— here I am giving away the secrets of the Home Office—to place his experience at the disposal of the Home Secretary, and it is possible for the Home Secretary to pick out from the barristers of the circuit men who make admirable Recorders.
You are not asking the Lord Chancellor to pick a man out of the barristers of the circuit, because you are not asking that the appointment should be limited to barristers; you are asking the Lord Chancellor to exercise a most extraordinary decision, namely, to pick out from amongst a body, it may be of 30, 116 40 or more local justices, whom he does not know and whom he can have no means of knowing, the man whom he thinks best fitted for the post, and to veto the man whom the men on the spot think best. I do suggest to the House, with every desire to meet any reasonable proposal made by hon. Members opposite —I agree that this is a reasonable Clause to put down for discussion—for the improvement of the Bill, that the proposer of the Clause has not made out the first condition that it is desirable should be made out clearly, namely, that the Quarter Sessions do not administer justly as between man and man. I believe they do. I believe they are an admirable tribunal. I am sure from the inquiries I have made that they are one of the best tribunals in the country. They are less over-ruled, perhaps in the Court of Criminal Appeal than any other tribunal. I think hon. Members in all quarters of the House will agree with me that there is a very strong feeling of satisfaction at the way in which justice is administered in Quarter Sessions. That being so, I ask the House not to accept the Clause which has been moved.
§ Sir HERBERT NIELDI will supply the information which the Home Secretary was unable to give in regard to appeals. I put a question to the Home Office in which I asked for information as to convictions which had been quashed or where sentences had been altered or where the appeal had been dismissed. They could only give me the figures for 1924. From this return, I find that the number of convictions or sentences quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal from High Court Judges sitting at Assizes were 21, from County Quarter Sessions 13, and from Borough Quarter Sessions three. Where convictions or sentences were quashed and some other conviction or sentence substituted, there were eight cases affecting the High Court Judges at Assizes, 11 affecting County Quarter Sessions, and 10 affecting Borough Quarter Sessions. The appeals dismissed were, from the Assizes 21, County Quarter Sessions 12, Borough Quarter Sessions three. There were 391 applications for leave to appeal. It may be that in the cases where leave was given they would come on afterwards. They are given as a separate figure.
117 I am very glad and relieved to hear the commendation from the mouth of the Home Secretary of these unpaid chairmen and deputy-chairmen of Quarter Sessions. They have done their work for the sake of serving their county, without fee or reward. Not even a railway fare is paid to them or any incidental expense in connection with their work. The figures which I have quoted for 1924 justify the words of commendation from the Home Secretary. It is suggested that these appointments should be an additional burden cast upon the Lord Chancellor's Department. It could not be done by the Lord Chancellor personally. I think the Lord Chancellor's Department is quite sufficiently looked after in the many directions in which it controls the services of the Law Courts and in other directions. If there is to be any control at all in regard to this matter of Quarter Sessions, it should be exercised by the Home Office. But it is the same thing in the Home Office as in the Lord Chancellor's Department. The House has heard the list of men who occupy these unpaid positions as chairmen of Quarter Sessions, and I am sure that hon. Members having heard that list will be disposed to congratulate the country as a whole on the fact that these men are prepared, voluntarily, to add to their work these duties as chairmen of Quart or Sessions and to discharge them with so much ability.
What is the Lord Chancellor to do? How is he to ascertain whether these men are fit? Before the War, an agitation was started in this House in regard to the appointment of magistrates. Has that benefited the community as a whole? Instead of the Lord Lieutenant appointing magistrates, it is left to the Lord Lieutenant's Advisory Committee. That Advisory Committee sends up the names to the Lord Chancellor and, as a rule, these names are accepted without question. The information is obtained from the members of the Advisory Committee who, in a properly ordered county, are spread over the county, so that they know something of each person whose name is submitted. When these magistrates have been appointed they elect their chairman. If one could have access to all the names which the Home Secretary has before him one would probably find very few of these country gentlemen who have not had training at the Bar or 118 have actually practised at the Bar. We should find that they are all men highly respected.
I sincerely hope that the House will stand by the Home Secretary in this matter, and not put upon the Lord Chancellor the invidious duty of vetoing the appointment of, I was going to say, a popularly elected body. The magistrates are now drawn from all members of the community and it is impossible to say that they belong merely to one class. Therefore it is upon the choice that has been made by a popularly selected body that you are asking the Lord Chancellor to exercise a veto. No case has been made out. One would have expected the hon. and learned Member to give the House facts in support of his case. He could not. He only generalised. He will find as he gets into closer intimacy with Quarter Sessions that they are so admirably conducted that he will advocate the permanency of the present system.
§ 8.0 P.M.
§ Mr. BANKSThe hon. and learned Member who moved this new Clause seemed to have two objects in view. First of all, it appears that he desires to see as chairman of Quarter Sessions somebody in the nature of a qualified lawyer —a sort of system of Recorders. He wants to substitute for the present method what, to him, would be a more satisfactory medium. My first answer to him is that the new Clause does not fulfil, nor even attempt to fulfil, either of the objects which he has in mind. He supported his case by arguments which were not relevant to the Clause. If election is wrong—and the analogy drawn from the popular election of Judges in America is fallacious, because nobody here would suggest that you should have a popular election of magistrates, but when your magistrates are already appointed it is a different thing to leave them to elect their own presidents—but if election is wrong the hon. and learned Member's case obviously is to propose that it should be abolished and that the appointment of the chairman of Quarter Sessions should be left to the discretion of the Lord Chancellor. The Home Secretary has given an absolutely conclusive reason to show that to leave the selection to the Lord Chancellor would 119 not be a suitable course to adopt. How is he to obtain the necessary information about the qualifications of these people.
Again, the second object apparently was to have qualified lawyers as chairmen of Quarter Sessions. If that is my hon. and learned Friend's object, why does he not say so? Why does he not provide that the Lord Chancellor must select gentlemen who have certain legal qualifications? The answer is that if there does happen to be a trained lawyer among the members of the county bench, almost invariably his colleagues on that bench are glad to select him and he is ready to accept the position. On the other hand, if there does not happen to be a lawyer, we know very well that, if some difficult legal question arises, there is always a trained lawyer in the clerk, and it is his duty to advise the bench as to what the law really is. There are other considerations which enter into the selection of the chairman of the county bench. It is not merely a knowledge of law and not merely that he is a man of experience. It is the general personality and characteristics of the man which have to be taken into account. He might be a good magistrate and not necessarily a good chairman. He might not have sufficient force of character or have sufficient weight with his colleagues to be suitable as a good chairman. These qualifications can be known only to those who have sat and worked with him and seen his act as a magistrate.
Finally, the suggested New Clause does not give the Lord Chancellor the power to make inquiries and select the name of the man who, he thinks, is most suitable, but puts upon him the very odious and invidious task of vetoing the selection. What would happen in practice I suppose is that, in the big majority of cases, the appointment would be confirmed without rejection. But where the appointment was not confirmed, what a stigma would be cast upon the gentleman who would be pronounced to be unacceptable. The objects which the hon. and learned Member has in view are not achieved by the Clause, and none of the arguments which he has employed are consistent with the objects or wording of it.
§ Mr. GROTRIANI support this Clause. It is practically impossible for a layman to sum up a complicated case in a charge to a jury. I have never yet heard it done 120 well by a layman. Therefore, I think that as time goes on there will be an insistent demand that we shall have professional chairmen. It has been said that that may lead to your wanting to have chairmen like recorders who are paid; I do not think so. What do you pay your recorders? Sums such as £60 a year or something absurd of that sort. You would get far better men when you do not pay them, probably, than if you do pay them, in cases of that kind. But I cannot help thinking that some of those who have spoken on this Clause do not realise fully the difficulty in which Quarter Sessions are sometimes placed. In some counties there is an absurd rule that the chairmanship should go by seniority. That is to say not when a man is of use, when he is in middle life or when he is young, but when he is getting old and deaf. This Clause will get Quarter Sessions out of that difficulty, and for this reason, that no longer will Quarter Sessions consider themselves bound to elect the senior man. They will not dare to do it if they know the Lord Chancellor has the power of vetoing the appointment, and it will strengthen the hands of the justices at Quarter Sessions very much in rejecting the claims of mere seniority and inefficiency.
I am well aware that the work of Chairmen of Quarter Sessions is most admirably done in some counties. But there are exceptions, and we want to bring those counties into line. It seems to me that this Clause will go a long way towards helping to bring that about. My own county, which I know most about, is admirably served. We have three King's Counsel, and other admirable Chairmen or Deputy-Chairmen of Quarter Sessions. But that is not so in other counties. I know counties in which the reverse is the case, and in which the position is most unsatisfactory. Great qualities are demanded from the Chairman of Quarter Sessions. Perhaps I may be allowed to quote something which would apply to him admirably.
He must he shrewd, sensible and good-tempered. His voice must be strong, clear and musical. He must be quiet, patient and without an atom of conceit.Those are not the qualifications of a Chairman of Quarter Sessions. They are taken from the immortal Mr. Jorrocks's advertisement for a huntsman, but still I think they apply to a great 121 extent to the Chairmen of Quarter Sessions. If this Clause is passed, it will get magistrates at Quarter Sessions out of the great difficulty of always having to appoint the senior man, whether he is suitable or not.
§ Mr. CECIL WILSONThe right hon. Gentleman has told us of the Quarter Sessions whose chairman had certain qualifications. Would he give us the list of those Quarter Sessions for which per-
§ sons with those qualifications were not appointed?
§ Sir W. JOYNSON-HICKSI cannot give the list at this moment, but if a question to me be put down, I will answer it.
§ Question put, "That, the Clause be read a Second time."
§ The House divided: Ayes. 101; Noes, 214.
123| Division No. 360.] | AYES. | [8.12 p.m. |
| Alexander, A. V. (Sheffield, Hillabro') | Hardle, George D. | Shiels, Dr. Drummond |
| Attlee, Clement Richard | Hastings, Sir Patrick | Short. Alfred (Wednesbury) |
| Baker, J. (Wolverhampton, Bliston) | Hayday, Arthur | Sinclair, Major Sir A. (Caithness) |
| Baker, Walter | Hirst, G. H. | Sitch, Charles H. |
| Barker, G. (Monmouth, Abertillery) | Hirst, W. (Bradford, South) | Slesser, Sir Henry H. |
| Barnes, A. | Hore-Belisha, Leslie | Smillie, Robert |
| Barr, J. | Hudson, J. H. (Huddersfield) | Snell, Harry |
| Batey, Joseph | Jenkins, W. (Glamorgan, Neath) | Snowden, Rt. Hon. Philip |
| Beckett, John (Gateshead) | Kelly, W. T. | Spoor, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Charles |
| Broad, F. A. | Kennedy, T. | Stamford, T. W. |
| Bromley, J. | Kenyon, Barnet | Stephen, Campbell |
| Buchanan, G. | Lansbury, George | Sutton, J. E. |
| Cape, Thomas | Lawson, John James | Taylor, R. A. |
| Charieton, H. C. | Lee, F. | Thomas, Rt. Hon. James H. (Derby) |
| Clowes, S. | Lowth, T. | Thomas, Sir Robert John (Anglesey) |
| Cluse, W. S. | Lunn, William | Thorne, W. (West Ham, Plaistow) |
| Clynes, Rt. Hon. John R. | Mackindar, W. | Thurtle, E. |
| Compton, Joseph | MacLaren, Andrew | Tinker, John Joseph |
| Connolly, M. | Maclean, Nell (Glasgow, Govan) | Townend, A. E. |
| Cove, W. G. | March, S. | Viant, S. P. |
| Dalton, Hugh | Montague, Frederick | Wallhead, Richard C. |
| Duncan, C. | Morrison, R. C. (Tottenham, N.) | Wedgwood, Rt. Hon. Josiah |
| Edwards, C. (Monmouth, Bedwellty) | Murnin, H. | Weir, L. M. |
| Gillett, George M. | Naylor, T. E. | Westwood, J. |
| Gosling, Harry | Oliver, George Harold | Whiteley, W. |
| Graham, Rt. Hon. Wm. (Edin., Cent.) | Palin, John Henry | Wilkinson, Ellen C. |
| Greenall, T. | Paling, W. | Williams, David (Swansea, East) |
| Grenfell, D. R. (Glamorgan) | Potts, John S. | Williams. T. (York, Don Valley) |
| Griffiths, T. (Monmouth, Pontypool) | Richardson, R. (Houghton-le-Spring) | Wilton, C. H. (Sheffield, Attercliffe) |
| Grotrian, H. Brent | Riley, Ben | Wilson, R. J. (Jarrow) |
| Grundy, T. W. | Roberts, E. H. G. (Flint) | Young, Robert (Lancaster, Newton) |
| Guest, J. (York, Hemsworth) | Robinson, W. C.(Yorks, W. R., Elland) | |
| Guest, Dr. L. Haden (Southwark, N.) | Scrymgeour, E. | TELLERS FOR THE AYES.— |
| Hall, F. (York, W. R, Normanton) | Scurr, John | Mr. Allen Parkinson and Mr. |
| Hall, G. H. (Merthyr Tydvil) | Sexton, James | Hayes. |
| NOES. | ||
| Acland-Troyte, Lieut.-Colonel | Burgoyne, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Alan | Drewe, C. |
| Ainsworth, Major Charles | Burman, J. B. | Edmondson, Major A. J. |
| Albery, Irving James | Butler, Sir Geoffrey | Elliot, Captain Walter E. |
| Applin, Colonel R. V. K. | Cadogan, Major Hon. Edward | Everard, W. Lindsay |
| Atkinson, C. | Cassels, J. D. | Fairfax, Captain J. G. |
| Balfour, George (Hampstaad) | Chadwick, Sir Robert Burton | Fanshawe Commander G. D. |
| Balniel, Lord | Clarry, Reginald George | Finburgh, S. |
| Banks, Reginald Mitchell | Clayton, G. C. | Fleming, D. P. |
| Barnett, Major Sir Richard | Cockerill, Brigadier-General G. K. | Forestier-Walker, Sir L. |
| Barnston, Major Sir Harry | Cohen, Major J. Brunel | Forrest, W. |
| Berry, Sir George | Cooper, A. Duff | Foster, Sir Harry S. |
| Bethell, A. | Cope, Major William | Frece, Sir Walter de |
| Bird, E. R. (Yorks, W. R., Skipton) | Couper, J. B. | Fremantle, Lieut.-Colonel Francis E. |
| Bird, Sir R. S. (Wolverhampton, W.) | Courthope, Lieut.-Col. Sir George L. | Ganzoni, Sir John |
| Bourne, Captain Robert Croft | Cowan, D. M. (Scottish Universities) | Gates, Percy |
| Bowyer, Capt. G. E. W. | Craig, Ernest (Chester, Crewe) | Gee, Captain R. |
| Brass, Captain W. | Crooke, J. Smedley (Deritend) | Gibbs, Col. Rt. Hon. George Abraham |
| Brassey, Sir Leonard | Crookshank, Cpt. H. (Lindsey, Gainsbro) | Gilmour, Lt.-Col. Rt. Hon. Sir John |
| Bridgeman, Rt. Hon. William Clive | Cunliffe, Joseph Herbert | Grace, John |
| Brigas, J. Harold | Curtis-Bennett, Sir Henry | Greene, W. P. Crawford |
| Brocklebank, C. E. R. | Dalkeith, Earl of | Gretton, Colonel John |
| Broun-Lindsay, Major H. | Dalziel, Sir Davison | Hall, Capt. W. D'A. (Brecon & Rad.) |
| Brooke, Brigadier-General C. R. I. | Davidson, Major-General Sir John H. | Hanbury, C. |
| Brown, Maj. D. C.(N'th'l'd., Hexham) | Davies, A. V. (Lancaster, Royton) | Hannon, Patrick Joseph Henry |
| Brown, Brig.-Gen. H. C. (Berks, Newb'y) | Davison, Sir W. H. (Kensington, S.) | Harvey, G. (Lambeth, Kennington) |
| Buckingham, Sir H. | Dean, Arthur Wellesley | Harvey, Major S. E. (Devon, Totnes) |
| Haslam, Henry C. | McDonnell, Colonel Hon. Angus | Shaw, R. G. (Yorks, W. R., Sowerby) |
| Hawke, John Anthony | McLean, Major A. | Shaw, Capt. W. W. (Wilts, Westb'y) |
| Henderson, Capt. R.R.(Oxf'd, Henley) | McNeill, Rt. Hon. Ronald John | Shepperson, E. W. |
| Henderson, Lieut.-Col. V. L. (Bootle) | MacRobert, Alexander M. | Simms, Dr. John M. (Co. Down) |
| Heneage, Lieut.-Colonel Arthur P. | Maitland, Sir Arthur D. Steel- | Smith-Carington, Neville W. |
| Henn, Sir Sydney H. | Manningham-Buller, Sir Mervyn | Smithers, Waldron |
| Hennexy, Major J. R. G. | Margesson, Capt. D. | Sprot, Sir Alexander |
| Herbert Dennis (Hertford, Watford) | Meller, R. J. | Stanley, Col. Hon. G. F.(Will'sden, E.) |
| Herbert, S. (York, N. R., Scar. & Wh'by) | Merriman, F. B. | Stanley, Lord (Fylde) |
| Hilton, Cecil | Meyer, Sir Frank | Stanley, Hon. O. F. G.(Westm'eland) |
| Hogg, Rt. Hon. Sir D.(St. Marylebone) | Mitchell, S. (Lanark, Lanark) | Steel, Major Samuel Strang |
| Holbrook, Sir Arthur Richard | Mitchell, W. Foot (Saffron Walden) | Storry Deans, R. |
| Holt, Capt. H. P. | Mitchell, Sir W. Lane (Streatham) | Stott, Lieut.-Colonel W. H. |
| Hope, Sir Harry (Forfar) | Monsell, Eyres, Com. Rt. Hon. B. M. | Stuart, Crichton-, Lord C. |
| Hopkins, J. W. W. | Nall, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Joseph | Sugden, Sir Wilfrid |
| Hopkinson, A. (Lancaster, Mossley) | Nelson, Sir Frank | Tasker, Major R. Inigo |
| Howard, Captain Hon. Donald | Newman, Sir R. H. S. D. L. (Exeter) | Thompson, Luke (Sunderland) |
| Hudson, Capt. A. U. M.(Hackney, N.) | Newton, Sir D. G. C. (Cambridge) | Thomson, F. C. (Aberdeen, South) |
| Hudson, R. S. (Cumberland, Whiteh'n) | Nicholson. O. (Westminster) | Tinne, J. A. |
| Hume, Sir G. H. | Nield, Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert | Titchfield, Major the Marquess of |
| Hurd, Percy A. | Oakley, T. | Waddington, R. |
| Hurst, Gerald B. | O'Neill, Major Rt. Hon. Hugh | Warner, Brigadier-General W. W. |
| Hutchison, G. A. Clark (Midl'n & P'bl's) | Ormsby-Gore, Hon. William | Watson, Sir F. (Pudsey and Otley) |
| Hutchison, Sir Robert (Montrose) | Pease, William Edwin | Watson, Rt. Hon. W. (Carlisle) |
| Jackson, Lieut.-Colonel Hon. F. S. | Pennefather, Sir John | Watts, Dr. T. |
| Jackson, Sir H. (Wandsworth, Cen'l) | Penny, Frederick George | Wells, S. R. |
| Jacob, A. L. | Perkins, Colonel E. K. | Wheler, Major Sir Granville C. H. |
| Jephcott, A. R. | Perring, William George | Williams, A. M. (Cornwall, Northern) |
| Jones, G. W. H. (Stoke Newington) | Peto, G. (Somerset, Frome) | Williams, Com. C. (Devon, Torquay) |
| Jones, Henry Haydn (Merioneth) | Pielou, D. P. | Williams, C. P. (Denbigh, Wrexham) |
| Joynson-Hicks, Rt. Hon. Sir William | Preston, William | Williams, Herbert G. (Reading) |
| Kennedy, A. R. (Preston). | Price, Major C. W. M. | Wilson, R. R. (Stafford, Lichfield) |
| Kidd, J. (Linlithgow) | Radford, E. A. | Winby, Colonel L. P. |
| King, Captain Henry Douglas | Raine, W. | Windsor-Clive, Lieut.-Colonel George |
| Knox, Sir Alfred | Rawlinson, Rt. Hon. John Fredk. Peel | Winterton, Rt. Hon. Earl |
| Lamb, J. O. | Rawson, Alfred Cooper | Wise, Sir Fredric |
| Lane-Fox, Lieut.-Col. George R. | Remer, J. R. | Wolmer, Viscount |
| Leigh, Sir John (Clapham) | Remnant, Sir James | Womersley, W. J. |
| Little, Dr. E. Graham | Roberts, Samuel (Hereford, Hereford) | Wood, B. C. (Somerset, Bridgwater) |
| Locker-Lampson, G. (Wood Green) | Russell, Alexander West (Tynemouth) | Wood, Sir Kingsley (Woolwich, W.) |
| Locker-Lampson, Com. O. (Handsw'th) | Rye, F. G. | Woodcock, Colonel H. C. |
| Loder, J. de V. | Salmon, Major I. | Yerburgh, Major Robert D. T. |
| Lord, Walter Greaves- | Samuel, Samuel (W'dsworth, Putney) | |
| Lucas-Tooth, Sir Hugh Vere | Sandeman, A. Stewart | TELLERS FOR THE NOES.— |
| Luce, Major-Gen. Sir Richard Harman | Sanders, Sir Robert A. | Captain Hacking and Captain |
| MacAndrew, Charles Glen | Savery, S. S. | Viscount Curzon. |