§ Order of the Day read for the consideration of the Second Report from the Select Committee on House of Lords Offices.
§ The Committee reported inter alia:—
§ 1.REFRESHMENT DEPARTMENT.
§ The Lord Great Chamberlain, as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Refreshment Department, made a satisfactory report from the Sub-Committee.
§ The Committee authorised the sending of a circular letter to Peers asking for contributions, similar to that sent last year.
§ 2. ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HOUSE.
§ The Report of the Sub-Committee on Acoustic Instruments in the House (see Appendix I) was submitted and considered.
§ The Committee adopted the Report.
§ 3. CUSTODY OF RECORDS IN THE VICTORIA TOWER.
§ The Report of the Sub-Committee on the Custody of Records in the Victoria Tower (see Appendix II) was submitted and considered.
§ The Committee adopted the Report.
§ 5. REASSESSMENT OF (BALANCE OF) CIVIL PAY OF CERTAIN CIVIL SERVANTS WHO SERVED WITH H.M. FORCES DURING THE GREAT WAR.
§ The Clerk of the Parliaments submitted a petition from certain Doorkeepers of the House for the payment of bonus as part of their civil pay during the war. Other members of the staff are in the same position, but have not made any claim.
§ The Committee at their last meeting recommended that no action should be taken in this matter, and so reported. The Committee's decision was then mainly based on the fact that members of the House of Lords serving during the war received exceptionally generous treatment.
590§ The Committee are, however, of opinion that the matter of the petition now presented should be examined with a view to ascertaining whether the claim put forward has any legal validity, and have appointed a Sub-Committee, consisting of the Lord Chairman, Lord Dunedin and another Law Lord, to consider and report on the legal questions raised in the petition.
§ 6. PORTRAIT OF QUEEN VICTORIA PRESENTED BY THE PRINCE OF WALES.
§ The Lord Chamberlain reported to the Committee that a portrait of Queen Victoria had been presented by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The Committee received the announcement of this gracious act with much pleasure.
§ 7. ESTIMATE.
§ The Estimate for the House of Lords Offices for the year ending March, 1926, was laid before the Committee by the Clerk of the Parliaments and approved.
§ APPENDIX I.
§ Report by the Sub-Committee of the House of Lords Offices Committee appointed to consider the installation of Acoustic Instruments in the House.
§ Ordered to Report:—
§ 1. That the Sub-committee was appointed to consider a proposal to place in convenient positions in the House acoustic instruments for the use of Peers who may have difficulty in hearing the proceedings.
§ 2. The Sub-Committee have investigated the practicability of the proposal.
§ They are satisfied that it would be possible to place a receiving instrument on each side of the Table without inconvenience or unsightly effect.
§ Models of two such receiving instruments have in fact been placed on the Table as an experiment, and have been there for a considerable period without any objection being raised.
§ The Committee have had the advantage of the advice of Sir Frank Baines, Director of Works, who has informed them that similar instruments can be linked up by underground wires to ear-pieces, similar to those used for telephones, in any part of the Chamber that may be desired.
§ 3. These receiving instruments would only transmit the speeches of Peers who address the House at the Table. For the apparatus to be effective it is necessary for the speaker to be in close proximity to the instrument, and short of a multiplicity of instruments in various parts of the House, which would be difficult to arrange, there is no method of transmitting the speeches of Peers who speak elsewhere than at the Table.
§ 4. The Sub-Committee, however, consider that a considerable advantage would be achieved by the limited use of the appliances which they have indicated.
§ At a later date, if it were the pleasure of the House, it would always be possible to consider the extension of the scheme.
591§ 5. They recommend that sanction should be given to the permanent installation of two instruments upon the Table, and that these should be connected up to ear-pieces at the following points, viz:—
- (i) Six ear-pieces at intervals on the third bench in the House, behind the front Government bench;
- (ii) Six ear-pieces at intervals on the third bench in the House, behind the front Opposition bench;
- (iii) Three ear-pieces in the Press Gallery.
§ 6. They recommend that the selection of appliances and the method of installation should be left to the discretion of the Office of Works, and that a request to give effect to these proposals should be submitted to the Commissioner of Works
§ APPENDIX II.
§ Report of the Sub-Committee appointed by the Select Committee on the House of Lords Offices to consider the Custody of Records in the Victoria Tower.
§ Your Sub-Committee report as follows:—
§ They have inspected the Victoria Tower, and found that the Records in the Tower are, as far as possible in the circumstances, well looked after and in good condition.
§ They are of opinion, however, that, having regard to the importance and practical value of the Records, further provision is required both for their preservation and for such cataloguing and calendaring as may be necessary to make them readily available when reference to them is required.
§ They have ascertained that reference to these Records is much more constantly required than is generally supposed, both for the purposes of historical research and for a purpose which is equally, if not more, important—the settlement of legal questions, especially questions of title. In this latter connection, inspection of the plans deposited with old Private Bills is constantly required.
§ A.—Preservation.
§ 1. The Sub-Committee found that the bound volumes show signs of suffering due to aspergillus in various forms. It is believed that the only mode of absolutely preventing the ravages of this fungus would be the warming of the rooms in which the books are kept. They realise, however, that this is, in the circumstances, impracticable, but the books should be cleaned and wiped as often as possible, and thymol, which is recommended as a partial preventative, should be used in the rooms which are liable to attack from this fungus.
§ 2. On the floor known as the well of the Tower, which is not divided, as the floors above it are, into separate rooms, there are a great many surplus copies of the Journals, Rolls of Parliament and other volumes, which are more or less stacked anyhow on the floor and serve only as a means for accumulating a great quantity of dust and dirt.
592§ Steps should be taken to get rid of these surplus documents by offering them to public libraries or other institutions, reserving, of course, a sufficient number to replace any wastage which may occur of the sets in use in the House of Lords. From the public point of view it would be of advantage so to dispose of these surplus copies as, in case of accident to the Records in the Tower, the copies which have been disposed of would be still in existence. Any of these documents which are not so disposed of should, instead of being stored as they are now in the well of the Tower, be removed to any separate rooms which may be available on the higher floors.
§ 3. Apart from the well room, the Records are kept in separate locked-up rooms built round the Tower, with a staircase and landing in the middle of each floor. There are eight rooms on each floor fitted with shelves and racks with wooden battens. Altogether there are at present over 50 rooms used for documents of various sorts.
§ Each of these rooms should be thoroughly cleaned out and the documents in them dusted, if possible, once a year. Documents such as old Acts of Parliament, plans, etc., which are in roll form would not be undone. It would be sufficient to dust the outside and the inside of the roll without unrolling the document. As a matter of practice, it is found that the inside of these documents which are rolled up is well preserved, and the unrolling of each of them would be a matter of endless labour and probably do more harm than good.
§ The rooms are more or less uniform in size, and it may be found possible, by using the rooms in rotation, to have one room always empty and clean into which the documents of the room which is being cleaned could, after they are dusted, be immediately removed. The room from which the documents are removed would then in its turn be thoroughly cleaned and become the empty and clean room.
§ 4. In connection with this subject it has been brought to our notice that the plans deposited with Private Bills are of considerable practical importance, as they are constantly being referred to on questions of title. These plans have in late years been printed on very perishable paper, and agents should be required to have one copy of the plans printed on material which will not perish for the purposes of record. These plans are in roll form, and there should be a sufficient margin to allow of the plans themselves not being spoiled by the dust which accumulates on the outside of the roll.
§ B.—Verification, Cataloguing and Calendaring.
§ A great deal of work is required under these heads in order to give the Records their full value from the public point of view.
§ 5. The older documents have been calendared up to 1710, but there is no separate cataloguing of the documents which bear date before 1693. Of these there are a good many, and, of course, they are of con- 593 siderable value. In connection with these older documents two things are wanted. First of all a catalogue should be compiled from the entries in the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission of the documents which ought to be in the Victoria Tower; and secondly, the older documents which actually are in the Victoria Tower should be examined with a view (a) of snaking certain that the documents which ought to be there are there, and (b) with a view to finding out what documents tire in the victoria Tower which do not appear in the Historical Manuscripts Commission entries.
§ 6. As regards documents after 1710, calendaring should be continued, but in the first place the documents should be roughly examined and a sort of class catalogue should be made in order that persons who come to inquire for certain documents may be told whether they are likely to be found in the Victoria Tower or not.
§ C.—Expenditure.
§ 7. A sum of £200 has been included in this year's estimates for the purpose of cleaning, and the Clerk of the Parliaments suggests that the messengers and others in his office should be employed during the vacation under the superintendence of the head messenger, who is well acquainted with the Tower, in carrying out cleaning work. At the end of the year it will be possible to tell how much cleaning can be done in the year with the staff and money available, and the experience of the year would make it possible to make effective arrangements for future years.
§ 8. Formerly a vote of £360 a year for calendaring was annually included in the estimates, but from motives of economy this vote was dropped in 1922. The money is urgently required for making these Records properly available to the public.
§ 9. We understand that a sum of £100, which was available from last year's estimate for cleaning is being spent in cleaning the older bundles of manuscripts, and that the opportunity is being taken at the same time of making a catalogue of the manuscripts which are actually found in the bundles.
§ The Committee make the following recommendations:—
- (1) That in the public interest it is necessary to incur such expenditure as is required for preserving the Records in the Victoria Tower and making them properly available to the public.
- (2) That steps should be taken, as suggested, for stopping the ravages of aspergillus.
- (3) That steps should be taken, as suggested, to clean the well room of the Tower.
- (4) That the money available this year for cleaning should be spent as suggested, and experience will thus be gained as to the necessity of taking further steps in the future.
- (5) That the arrangements for the furnishing of more durable copies of plans, which it is believed have already been made, should be carried out.
- (6) That the work of verification of the documents in the Tower should be proceeded with.
- (7) That a vote should in each year be included in the estimates for calendaring.
THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE)My Lords, I beg to move that this Report be now considered and adopted.
§ Moved accordingly, and, on Question, Motion agreed to.