§ 30. Mr. R. MORRISONasked the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been drawn to the activities of the Lancashire and Cheshire Conservative Teachers' Circle; whether he is aware that the annual meeting, held recently at the Constitutional Club, Manchester, was addressed by the chairman of the Conservative party; and will he take steps to secure that the members of this organisation do not take advantage of their position in the schools to influence the scholars in favour of their political party?
§ Lord E. PERCYThe answer to the first two parts of the question is in the affirmative. As regards the last part, I gather, from what I have seen in the Press, that it is the main aim of this organisation to assert the right and the duty of teachers rigidly to exclude from the schools all party politics and every sort of political propaganda. If the hon. Member has any reason to believe that any member of the organisation is infringing this principle, I shall he glad if he will supply me with the necessary information.
§ Mr. MORRISONHas the Noble Lord seen that the chairman of the Conservative party, a Member of this House, in his speech, told these teachers that they had reached a stage when it was no good pretending to be non-political and that it was they duty of the members to save the children from being contaminated by the proposals of Labour organizations? Is this the Noble Lord's interpretation of his widely reported utterances about keeping politics out of school, that it only means the politics of other parties, and not of his own?
§ Sir HARRY BRITTAINrose—
§ Lord E. PERCYI will answer the supplementary questions together, which I have a perfect right to do.
§ Sir H. BRITTAINIn view of what is happening throughout the country, is not this a very impertinent question?
§ Lieut.-Colonel Sir GODFREY DALRYMPLE-WHITEIs it not a, fact that there is an organisation called the Teachers' Labour League?
§ Mr. MORGAN JONESOn a point of Order. Is it in order for an hon. Member to characterise the question of another hon. Member as an impertinent question?
§ Mr. SPEAKERIt seemed to me without point. Probably, I could not see the point.
§ Lord E. PERCYWith regard to the first supplementary question, I will leave it to the hon. Member, and all other hon. Members in the House, to read the speech to which he refers and to compare it with the speeches of his own party—
§ Lord E. PERCY—and to see whether he does not consider the speech to which he refers as not only wholly unobjectionable in itself, but in the strongest contrast to the tone of the speeches of the hon. Member's own colleagues.