§ VISCOUNT HARCOURT rose to ask His Majesty's Government on what date the Ministry of Pensions will vacate the premises at Millbank belonging to the Registry of Friendly Societies in order that the latter may return to their own premises, and so release the accommodation at present occupied by them in the British Museum, which includes the Print Exhibition Room, the Print Students Room, and half of the Egyptian and Assyrian Galleries, including the Mummy Room, all of which are much required for public exhibition.
791§ The noble Viscount said: My Lords, it is not necessary, I think, for me to make any statement on the matter in putting this Question, except to draw your Lordships' attention to the fact that unless and until the Ministry of Pensions can be consolidated, if possible reduced, and certainly removed from the premises at Millbank, there is no hope of the Registry of Friendly Societies being removed from the British Museum. You Lordships have seen from time to time, during the six months which have elapsed since the Armistice, announcements in the newspapers that the various galleries of the British Museum have been re-opened to the public. That has been due to the activity of the staff of the Museum in unpacking the treasures which had been stored for safety against air raids in the Tubes. It is not due in any case to the removal from the Museum galleries of any of the officials placed there during the war by the Government; none have been removed except from a small room in a sub-basement which is never seen by the public, the effect of which has been to afford some slight gain in storage room to the Museum. To-day the galleries occupied by clerks are as numerous as they were at any time during the war, and until the Registry of Friendly Societies can be restored to its own premises there is no hope of access to the Print Exhibition Room, to the Print Students Rooms, and to most of the Egyptian and Assyrian Galleries, being restored to the public. I trust that at last we have reached the point and the time at which some satisfactory and real assurance of immediate evacuation can be given on behalf of His Majesty's Government.
§ LORD STANMOREMy Lords, the premises of the Registry of Friendly Societies at Milbank, and a considerable amount of other accommodation in the immediate neighbourhood, are occupied by the head-quarters staff of the Ministry of Pensions. Some of the buildings occupied will have to be given up at an early date, in particular the premises of the American Tobacco Company, an important industrial concern, which were generously lent to the Government free of rent. The approaching surrender of these buildings has necessarily brought under consideration the question of re-housing the staff as a whole, and until some satisfactory solution of this question can be found it is impossible to state at 792 what date the Registry of Friendly Societies can be reinstated at Millbank. The War Cabinet are now considering schemes for removing large numbers of Government staffs at present in Westminster to other districts where there is less congestion. If those schemes can be carried out it should be possible to move the Registry of Friendly Societies out of the Museum buildings at an early date.
§ VISCOUNT HARCOURTMy Lords, I will only observe, in relation to the answer we have just had, that it is a new form of preference that the early evacuation of the premises of an American tobacco company should impede the enjoyment of our Museums by our own public.