§ LORD MAELORMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the speech of the Lord Chancellor delivered at Llandrindod Wells on April 22, when he compared some Welsh youths to I.R.A. baboons, reflects the policy of the Government.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD HAILSHAM OF SAINT MARYLEBONE)My Lords, with respect, the noble Lord has mis-stated the effect of my speech. I neither referred to Welsh youths as such nor compared them to baboons. I expressed the warmest admiration for the Welsh people's language and culture, but condemned in round terms all those in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England or Wales whose conduct tended to make any part of the United Kingdom ungovernable. Such thinking undoubtedly accords with the policy of Her Majesty's Government.
§ LORD MAELORMy Lords, while thanking the noble and learned Lord, the Lord Chancellor, for his reply, may I ask him two supplementaries? Is he aware that in the Encylopœdia Britannica the baboon is described as "highly intelligent and educable"? Is he further aware that as he was addressing a meeting of Welsh Tories I thought perhaps he was rather confused and may have meant to open his speech with the words: "Mr. Chairman, and fellow buffoons."
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, what I am aware of is that I received two letters, purporting to have been written by or on behalf of baboons, complaining that I had misrepresented them.
§ LORD MAELORMy Lords, since we are later to discuss a Private Member's Bill, the Control of Zoological Gardens (No. 2) Bill, I think that in view of the reply now made by the noble and learned Lord—
§ LORD MAELORMy Lords, I am asking the noble and learned Lord a question: I am asking whether he would not be the very man to take control of the Zoological Gardens.