§ Mr. BingMy attention has been called by the noble Lord the Member for Horsham (Earl Winterton) to the report in HANSARD of a speech of mine made in the House on 18th November. With your leave, Sir, and with the leave of the House, I would like to apologise both to the noble Lord and to the House for a misprint which occurs in it. As a result of the omission of one word and the misprinting of another, I am made to appear to suggest that the noble Lord was present in the House when the Army Regulation Bill was discussed in July, 1871— [Laughter]—or, alternatively, that the question of the sale and purchase of commissions was still an active issue as late as 1905. Of course, neither suggestion is true. The last thing which a new Member of this House would wish to do is to be intentionally discourteous to the noble Lord, and I hope the House will pardon any clumsiness in speech on my part which may have led to my being misreported.
§ Earl WintertonMay I, Sir, in accordance with a well-grounded precedent, thank the hon. Member for his most courteous correction and say that the only reason why I asked him to make it was that I feared some speaker on a subsequent occasion might have stated that I was in the House and made no effective protest by way of espying Strangers when one of your predecessors had a few words with King Charles I.