§ Order of the Day read for the consideration of the Fourth Report from the Select Committee.
§ The Committee reported as follows:a
§ 1. RESIDENCE OF THE YEOMEN USHER OF THE BLACK ROD.
§ The Chairman of Committees was desired to communicate with the First Commissioner of Works with regard to the supply of coal for the use of Sir Thomas Butler, K.C.V.O.
§ 2. DECORATION OF THE ROYAL GALLERY.
§
This matter was first considered by the House of Lords Offices Committee on the 9th July, 1925, when the following report was made to the House:—
The Lord Great Chamberlain announced to the Committee that the Earl of Iveagh had offered to complete the decoration of the Royal Gallery at a cost of not less than £20,000, it being understood that the Earl of Iveagh would be anxious to undertake the whole of the scheme of decoration, but in conjunction, of course, with the Lord Great Chamberlain and the Office of Works; and also the Lord Great Chamberlain proposed, if the Committee agreed, to add the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chairman as representing the House of Lords.
It was further understood that the scheme of decoration was to harmonise with the scheme of the War Memorial.
The Committee expressed their great gratitude to the Earl of Iveagh for his generous proposal, and are gladly taking the matter into most careful consideration with a view to making an early recommendation to the House.
§
This was followed by a further report on the 5th August of the same year:—
The Committee, having given further consideration to the matter, would regard with warm approval the acceptance of the generous offer made by Lord Iveagh to complete the decoration of the Royal
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Gallery as set out in their Third Report, dated the 9th of July, 1925.
§ Later, on the 6th July, 1927, there was a discussion in the House when the Lord Cawley asked a question with reference to the Peers' War Memorial and the redecoration of the Royal Gallery, at which the position up to date was explained and the Chairman of Committees announced to the House that it was his intention, when the Lord Great Chamberlain thought fit to call him into consultation in conjunction with the Lord Chancellor and the First Commissioner of Works, to make it his business to see that before anything was finally decided the House should have every opportunity of considering the proposals and expressing an opinion upon them.
§ The late Earl of Iveagh died on the 7th October, 1927, but his successor, the present Earl of Iveagh, most generously communicated his desire to proceed with his father's intentions.
§
The matter accordingly came before the House of Lords Offices Committee again on the 8th March, 1928, when the following report was made to the House:—
The Committee considered the proposals for the decoration of the Royal Gallery.
The Chairman of Committees referred to certain correspondence that had passed since the debate in the House of Lords on the 6th July last. The Viscount Peel, First Commissioner of Works, made a statement to the Committee.
The Committee resolved that the Viscount Peel be asked to arrange for the submission of all designs in connection both with the House of Lords' War Memorial and with the proposed decoration of the Royal Gallery to the Royal Fine Art Commission forthwith.
§
And on the 24th July, 1928, a communication having been received from the Royal Fine Art Commission, the House of Lords Offices Committee reported to the House as follows:—
The Chairman of Committees informed the Committee that the Royal Fine Art Commission raise no objection to the Peers' War Memorial statue being proceeded with without delay and independently of the scheme for the decoration of the Royal Gallery, which had not yet been submitted. He further informed the Committee that the Memorial Volumes were now exhibited in a case in the Royal Gallery near the site of the Memorial.
§
At their meeting on the 6th March, 1930, which it is now the duty of the Committee to report, the Chairman of Committees drew attention to the above, and the Lord Great Chamberlain also informed the Committee of a memorandum which he had found amongst the late Marquess of Lincolnshire's papers dated 9th November, 1927, and which the Committee desire to quote as it seems material to present circumstances:
The present Lord Iveagh accepts all his father's pledges and responsibilities, and, as agreed between the late Lord
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Iveagh and Mr. Erangwyn, in June, 1928, specimen finished pictures will be on view in the Royal Gallery for the inspection and ultimate acceptance or refusal by the House of Lords of the pictures.
It is hoped that a vote of the whole House will be taken on the subject, alter due inspection and deliberation.
If the pictures are not accepted, the late Earl of Iveagh's offer of the redecoration of the Royal Gallery comes to an end, and the pictures will be the property of the Earl of Iveagh.
§ The Committee desire to repeat their sense of obligation to the late Earl and to the present Earl of Iveagh for the generous feelings that prompted them to make the offers which have now been so long under discussion. They have now received the observations of the Royal Fine Art Commission, which are contained in a letter to the Clerk of the Parliaments (printed as an Appendix to this Report), and in accordance with the pledges previously given and the wishes expressed by the Earl of Iveagh they have decided to submit these observations to the House, with an intimation that they concur in the views expressed by the Royal Fine Art Commission.