§ Mr. BUCHANANMay I ask for your guidance and Ruling, Mr. Speaker, on the question of the allocation of rooms for the use of the Opposition in this House. I put this question to you, because I understand that it is you and not the First Commissioner of Works who really allocates the rooms. Is it not within your right and would you under take the duty to see that a section of the Opposition is allocated one room, any room at all, for the purposes of their work in this House? I would like to point out that the Opposition have 10 rooms allocated to them, and that those rooms are allocated for the use of all sections of the Opposition. I would like, further, to point out that 13 rooms are allocated 1471 to the Government and that the Government supporters have divided those rooms among themselves. There are five of us— am not sure whether there is not a sixth but I only claim five at the moment—and, although we are in opposition and have no official contact with the official Opposition, and have no intention of having such contact, we have no room. In view of the fact that the Opposition have 10 rooms, or one room for every 4.5 of their Members, could not a room be allocated to us? Whatever may be said about us, we do work, and we are entitled to have a room in order that our work in this House may he effectively carried out. As no room is placed at our disposal, when we wish to get any typing done of a private character, the person who does the work has to carry the machine backwards and forwards. Seeing that we wish to carry on our work to the credit of ourselves and the section which we represent, I would ask whether we could not be allocated at least one room.
§ Mr. SPEAKERIt is quite true that these kind of questions are eventually brought to me to decide. The hon. Member is not quite correct in saying that the Opposition are allotted 10 rooms; the number is nine—
§ Mr. BUCHANANNine, plus the leader's room.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe leader's room is included in the nine. The hon. Member must realise that it has always been the custom, as the Minister said in his reply, for rooms to be allotted to those in the Government and to those in the Opposition, and the question as to their allocation afterwards must rest with one party or the other. The number of rooms always remains the same, although the tendency of late has been for the number of groups to increase. If the hon. Member would care to see me, I will see if I can help him in any way. I shall be only too glad to do so.
§ Mr. BUCHANANWithout being persistent, may I be allowed to put this point; that the Opposition has not been multiplied. When the Liberal and Labour parties were in opposition the 1472 Labour party were far more numerous but gave ample rooms to the Liberal party. May I ask you whether representations could not be made that at least we should have the right to do our work in this House as Members of the House. There is another point which I think should be considered. We feel that the rooms could be better used than they are at the present time.
§ Mr. SPEAKERI have told the hon. Member that if he will come to me I will do my best for him.
§ Sir WILLIAM DAVISONIs it not clear that the supporters of the Opposition have far too many rooms considering their small number. There are various points of opinion among the supporters of the Government, and if there are more rooms available there are many supporters of the Government who would like to have one in order to discuss their opinions.
§ Sir JOSEPH LAMBMay I ask whether former Members who are not now Members of the House have the right to use these rooms?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is a matter upon which I have no knowledge and therefore should not like to express an opinion.