§ The following Question stood upon the Order Paper in the name of Mr. Thorne:
§ To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether foreign hides imported are required to be registered on entering this country; if he is aware that a man working at Messrs. Waring, Warrington, died after contracting anthrax from skins that he had been handling which were known as water-buffalo but their source could not be given; and if he intends taking any action in the matter?
§ Mr. ThorneMay I ask for your guidance, Mr. Speaker? On Wednesday last I put down this question to be answered by the President of the Board of Trade because I thought that it affected his Department. I find that it has been relegated to the Home Secretary, and there is no possibility of it being answered in the House to-day. I am not complaining about that, but I think that when a question is relegated from one Department to another it ought to be put down for answer on the day when there is a possibility of it being answered by the Minister concerned?
§ Mr. SpeakerI am sorry for the hon. Member. It is sometimes very difficult, when a question is transferred, to make proper arrangements for it to be transferred to a day upon which the Minister concerned will have precedence at Question Time.
§ Mr. ThorneIf I had known that the question was to be relegated to the Home Secretary, I should have put it down for to-morrow, because that is his day for answering questions.
§ Mr. SpeakerIf the hon. Member puts down his question for Thursday, it will be answered.
§ Mr. BellengerIs it not the custom, when a Minister desires to transfer a question, that he notifies the hon. Member concerned, so that, if he wishes, he can transfer the question himself?
§ Mr. ThorneI would remind my hon. Friend that I did get a notification.