§ VISCOUNT BRYCE rose to ask His Majesty's Government if they will cause to be prepared and distributed as a Parliamentary Paper copies of the Armistices concluded between the Allied Governments and the Governments of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, a copy of the further Armistice which is now being concluded with Germany, and a copy of the scheme for the League of Nations provisionally adopted by the representatives of the Powers assembled at the Paris Conference.
§ The noble Viscount said: My Lords, the Question on the Paper requires, I hope, no advocacy. It is merely to call the attention of His Majesty's Government to the possibility of supplying members of your Lordships' House, and members of the other House also, with Papers which are much in our minds and will often be in our hands, and it will be very convenient to have them in the form of Papers issued by His Majesty's Government. I venture to suggest, if the Government are 164 disposed to agree to prepare and distribute as a Parliamentary Paper a copy of the scheme for the League of Nations provisionally adopted by the representatives of the powers assembled at the Paris Conference, they would do well to consider whether it would not be better to give them to us in octavo rather than folio form. We shall have to consider them very carefully and possibly have a debate, and it would be much more convenient if they were in octavo form.
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER (The EARL of CRAW-FORD)My Lords, the documents will be laid as soon as the official text of the further Armistice has been received in this country. As to the form in which they should be issued, I have had no notice of that question. If the size is octavo it conflicts with the normal Parliamentary folio size. But I will consult with the authorities of the House, and if it is possible endeavour to issue them in a more portable form than the folio size.
§ VISCOUNT BRYCEI am much obliged to the noble Earl. I made the suggestion because, as he well knows, there are a good many Reports which are issued in octavo form, and as this Report is of more than transitory importance it would be more convenient were it published in that form.