§ Mr. McGOVERNHaving interviewed you privately, Mr. Speaker, and asked your permission to make a personal statement, I now, in view of the fact that I intimated to you and to the House that I would introduce a petition asking that a deputation of unemployed hunger marchers should be received at the Bar, ask the indulgence of the House while I give the following reasons for my inability to introduce such a petition.
It had been intimated, through their Press, by the leaders of the National Unemployed Workers Movement that they 1445 desired to present a monster petition to Parliament, signed by 1,000,000 persons, asking for the withdrawal of the means test, restoration of cuts in benefit, etc., and also to send a deputation to the Bar of the House to plead the cause of the suffering unemployed. Believing that to be a worthy effort, and knowing that they had no official representatives in this House and that, before they could appear at the Bar, certain formalities had to be gone through to clear the way for their presence, I went out of my way to interview them and offer, on behalf of our group, to place our services at their disposal and to provide the necessary machinery. Having met Mr. Wal Hannington and Mr. Harry McShane on Friday, and made that offer to them, on behalf of the unemployed hunger marchers I have been informed this morning by Mr. McShane that their council discussed the offer yesterday, and decided to reject this necessary medium and to rely on their massed strength to force Parliament to allow their deputation to appear at the Bar. I regret that decision, and come to the conclusion that the unemployed leaders do not desire to appear at the Bar. I feel sure that the hunger marchers will resent the loss of this opportunity, and, although our cooperation has been rejected, we shall still continue in our own way to work on behalf of that unfortunate section of society.