§ Mr. ThurtleI desire, Mr. Speaker, to raise a point of Order in regard to the rights of private Members, and I should like you to believe that I do so because I am jealous of those rights. I have a question on the Order Paper for tomorrow addressed to the Prime Minister asking whether he can make any statement with regard to the recent visit of Lord Halifax to Germany. I understand from a reply which he has just given that he proposes to make that statement in reply to a Private Notice Question. I always understood that a question on the Order Paper took precedence over a Private Notice Question covering the same point, and in defence of my rights as a private Member I should like to have your Ruling on the point.
§ Mr. SpeakerIf any question is sent to me in the form of a Private Notice Ques- 1041 tion and I find there is a question dealing with the same matter on the Paper, I always decline to allow that Private Notice Question to be asked. A Private Notice Question never has any priority over a question which is already on the Paper; indeed, the position is exactly the reverse. If there is a question on the Paper a Member cannot put a Private Notice Question on the same point.