THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (VISCOUNT CRANBORNE) (Lord Cecil)My Lords, I think that perhaps before this House proceeds to the business on the Paper noble Lords might allow me to refer briefly to a matter which arose yesterday during the debate on the distribution of foodstuffs. First of all, I should like to express my sincere regret to the House that I was not myself present. I was unfortunately engaged on important duties elsewhere, and I hope, therefore, that my absence will be forgiven. I have been informed, however, that certain noble Lords felt that the House was being treated with some discourtesy because the White Paper on milk was issued only just before the beginning of the debate. I need not assure the House that it was far from the intention of the Government to treat noble Lords with any discourtesy, and perhaps it would be helpful if I explained how this position arose.
The debate on the distribution of foodstuffs was originally arranged, as your Lordships know, for the end of April, and subsequently, for reasons which it is not necessary to go into to-day, it was postponed, first of all until May 19 and then again until yesterday. In the meantime, my noble friend the Minister of Food was engaged in evolving and securing agreement on a new policy for the reorganization of the milk trade and the distribution of milk to meet war-time needs. These negotiations were not dependent on, nor directly connected with, the debate, and it was in fact a mere coincidence that the issue of a White Paper giving particulars of this new milk policy fell due on the date arranged for the debate on the Motion of the noble Lord, Lord Teviot. My noble friend's original idea was that he should make a statement on milk policy in answer to a Private Notice Question, but I told him—and I am entirely responsible for this—that I thought this was unlikely to be acceptable to your 114 Lordships; because the House will remember that recently exception was taken to this particular procedure, and I had undertaken that Private Notice Questions should be strictly confined to matters of urgent national importance on which there could be no delay. He then drew my attention to the fact that there was the debate on the distribution of foodstuffs, which seemed to provide an opportunity for such a statement, and he would also then announce that a White Paper was being issued on the subject of milk. It seemed to me, rightly or wrongly, that this proposal would be more acceptable to the House than the other procedure which had been suggested, and I advised him to adopt it.
It is, after all, not an unusual proceeding that a statement should be made by a responsible Minister in one or other of the Houses of Parliament, and that a White Paper should be simultaneously or subsequently issued to provide members of the two Houses with a record of Government policy in a convenient form for use in subsequent debate. I would, emphasize that this particular White Paper could not in any case have been issued earlier—that would have been impossible—and the only alternative procedure would have been that the White Paper should have been issued yesterday without a statement, and the statement and a debate should have followed later. That, I quite agree, might have been the better method. But it was never contemplated by me, or, I think, by my noble friend, that the debate would focus round the White Paper, and I thought that the House would wish to have the statement as soon as it possibly could. I would assure noble Lords that the sole object of the procedure which was adopted, and for which I accept the very fullest responsibility, was to suit the convenience of the House, and I am very sorry if it failed to attain that object. At any rate the White Paper is now before your Lordships, and if there is any noble Lord who would like to put down a Motion for discussion on it, I know that my noble friend Lord Woolton will be very happy to arrange a date for such a discussion.
§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, I am sure everyone welcomes the statement of the Leader of the House. I should like to express my accord with him in regard 115 to the matter which was recently put before a special Committee appointed by your Lordships as to defining, so far as you can define, the purpose of Private Notice Questions, and I think the procedure that he indicated is the right procedure. As to the other part of his statement, I am quite sure that neither he nor my noble friend the Minister of Food ever thought of doing anything which was contrary to the wishes of the House, but I entered a protest because on principle I think it is exceedingly desirable that Papers on Government policy should be in the hands of members before a discussion takes place—I am sure we all agree to that—and that a statement therefore should not be made upon such a document unless members had had the opportunity beforehand of considering what it was going to be about. I gratefully acknowledge the courtesy of the Leader of the House, and I am quite sure we are all quite satisfied with it.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, my noble friend Lord Crewe, who made some observations on this matter yesterday, is prevented by a public engagement from being present in the House this afternoon, but I am sure he would desire me on his behalf to express his appreciation of the explanation that the Leader of the House has been good enough to make.