HC Deb 02 February 1956 vol 548 cc1081-2
Mr. Speaker

Mr. David Jones—Question No. 59.

Mr. Hyde

On a point of order. You have not called Question 58, which is in my name, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker

I understood that the hon. Member's Question was withdrawn.

Mr. Hyde

It was not.

Mr. Speaker

Mr. David Jones.

Mr. Hyde

Further to that point of order. I asked the Table to withdraw the Question if it were not reached.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member ought not to give such hypothetical instructions. Mr. David Jones.

Mr. Hyde

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker, am I not right in saying that it is customary to ask the Table to withdraw a Question if it is not reached?

Mr. Speaker

I understand the custom has grown up for a Member to ask for his Question to be withdrawn if it is not reached, but I understood that the hon. Gentleman's Question was definitely withdrawn.

Mr. Hyde

No, Sir, only if ft were not reached. I asked that in that event it should be put off until next Thursday.

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Hyde.

58. Mr. Hyde

asked the Secretary to the Treasury why two bundles of documents relating to Queen Caroline, wife of King George IV, covering the years 1804 to 1820, have been removed from the Public Record Office; and where they are now located and whether they can be seen by students.

Mr. H. Brooke

The documents concerned were, on examination in 1935, considered to be not public records or State papers but part of the Sovereign's private family archives. They were accordingly transferred, with the written authority of the then Master of the Rolls and the then Secretary of State for the Home Department, from the Public Record Office to the Royal Archives at Windsor, where they now remain and where, it is understood, they are not open to inspection.

Mr. Hyde

Is my right hon. Friend aware that these papers arrived at the Public Record Office over a hundred years ago from the old State Paper Office, and that they remained there for the best part of a century, where they were seen by the public? Will he make it clear now that they were eventually transferred to Windsor, not on account of the nature of their contents but because of their character?

Mr. Brooke

My information is that they were transferred because of their private nature.