§ Mr. MALCOLMasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why he communicated to certain members of the London Chamber of Commerce dispatches or reports from His Majesty's Ministers resident abroad, referring to the feather industry, which have not been supplied to Members of Standing Committee B, now engaged upon the examination of the Plumage Bill; whether he will forthwith furnish the Members of that Committee with the same information; and whether he will give an undertaking that no outside body shall receive from his Department any documents that are withheld from the knowledge of Members of this House who are charged with the duty of examining a question to which such documents are germane?
§ Mr. ACLANDNo dispatches or reports from His Majesty's representatives abroad on the subject of the feather industry have been communicated by the Foreign Office to the members of the London Chamber of Commerce. The questionnaire sent to British representatives by the Committee for the Economic Preservation of Birds, to which the hon. Member presumably refers, was sent direct without previous submission to, or approval by, the Foreign52W Office. This committee are at liberty to publish the information which has been received after submitting it to the Foreign Office, but if they decide to do so they should publish it in full, as otherwise a misleading impression as to the nature of the replies might be given.