Commander Sir BOLTON EYRES MONSELLWith your permission, Mr. Speaker, I rise to make a very brief personal 969 explanation, in order to answer an accusation that was brought against me last night by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, who accused me of breaking an alleged agreement on the question of business. In every conversation that I held with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury regarding the extra day for the Report stage of the Budget Resolution, I refused to say at what hour the Report stage could be brought to a conclusion, for the very simple and obvious reason that it was not in my power so to do. What I did say was that if the Parliamentary Secretary would put down some business afterwards that was not of too controversial a nature, I would do my best to assist him to get it through. That is exactly what happened last night; the Government obtained all the business that was announced by the Prime Minister, and I do not know what is the gravamen of the accusation which was made against us last night.
I regret that this controversy has arisen between the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and myself. For seven years I have been intimately connected with the conduct of the business of this House, and for many years I have been in friendly relations with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury. I have always aimed at working for the convenience of the House, and principally at avoiding all-night sittings, which I know are not liked by the majority of Members. These negotiations have involved the making of daily bargains with the other side of the House, and this is the first occasion on which any of them have been called into question across the Floor of the House. I much regret that, on one of the first occasions when the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been the Leader of the House, such a question should have arisen. I do not believe that this controversy would have arisen if it had not been for the Chancellor of the Exchequer exercising what, on the Continent, they so aptly call, "the green tongue." If the Government persist in accusing me of breaking a Parliamentary agreement I am left entirely cold, and the only alternative is to refuse to make any Parliamentary bargains at all. I do not wish to do that, because I do not think it would be for the convenience of the House as a whole; but if 970 this course has to be adopted I feel quite certain that the Government will have more cause to regret it than we shall.
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. T. Kennedy)I have no wish to say more than a very few words with regard to a misunderstanding which, I think, is more apparent than real, and a misunderstanding which, I am happy to say, I do not share. The right hon. Gentleman who has just spoken will remember, perhaps, that on 29th April we had conversations with regard to the time to be devoted to the Report stage of the Budget Resolutions. At his suggestion I agreed to postpone our conversations on the matter until we had discovered how much time would be required for a private Bill that had been put down for 30th April. On 30th April the Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) how far he proposed to go that evening with the Budget Resolutions. The answer he got was that that depended on the time required to dispose of the private Bill. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, I remember, expressed the hope that the matter would be adjusted through the usual channels. The private Bill put down for that evening was concluded about 10.30 p.m., and during that evening I reached what I regarded as an understanding with the right hon. Gentleman, that on the concluding day on which the Budget Resolutions were to be taken the Debate on the Resolutions would end round about dinner time. On Thursday, 1st May, on the ground of those conversations, the Prime Minister stated across the Floor of the House, in answer to a question by the Leader of the Opposition, that:
It is hoped to complete the Report stage of the outstanding Budget Resolutions and of the Resolutions relating to the Finance Bill, which have been agreed in Committee of the Whole House, by about 7.30."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 1st May, 1930; col. 374, Vol. 238.]No exception was taken to that statement. That being so, I regarded the arrangement as concluded, and the business put down for 6th May was put down in the order in which it appeared on the Order Paper. [Interruption.] I am expressing now no grievance. I am happy to say that no irreparable damage has been done, but I conclude by expressing 971 the hope that similar misunderstandings may not arise in future, and by again stating that so far as this matter is concerned I cannot admit having been under any misapprehension at any stage of our conversations.