§ 1. Mr. BARKERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for what reason it has been judged desirable to delay the presentation to Parliament of the papers respecting the first firing in the Shameen affair of 23rd June, 1925, until 10 months after the event occurred?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. G. Locker-Lampson)The papers have been published in response to a request made by the hon. Member for West Leicester (Mr. Pethick-Lawrence on the 22nd of February. My right hon. Friend authorised it as soon as he had been able to satisfy himself by reference to our representatives in China that the publication was not likely to be injurious to the public interest.
§ Sir HENRY CRAIKOn a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. Is it not rather useless to have Questions put and answered when we do not know what they are 266 about? Ought we not to have the Questions themselves read?
§ Mr. SPEAKERWe can only produce our printed Votes at the moment under very unusual circumstances. I asked yesterday for the forbearance of hon. Members in the present situation, in which it has not been possible to print and circulate a sufficient number of copies.