Mr Stanley Baldwin: I do not propose to answer at this moment any hypothetical question. They have been warned of the danger, and I cannot imagine that there are any owners in this country who, knowing the danger, would disregard it, and expose their ships and men to it.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: My right hon. Friend has had a long standing engagement, as all of us have at times, to speak at Liverpool to-night. In the course of this morning, I stopped him from going to Liverpool so that we might discuss these questions and that he might be here. He was prepared to cancel the meeting —always a difficult business as hon. and right hon. Gentlemen know, in view of the numbers that...
Mr Stanley Baldwin: I should like to say in answer to that, that while I appreciate the point, I do not think that is an invariable rule, because I know when I have been in a position to make that inquiry if I find that the Minister is not in his place I have assumed that there are good and satisfactory reasons.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: We are suspending it in order to obtain the Second Reading of the Ministers of the Crown Bill and the necessary Money Resolution in Committee. As the House is aware, the Army (Annual) Bill is exempted business, and it must be passed into law by 30th April. We should like to obtain the Committee and remaining stages of the Bill to-day, but we do not intend to enter upon the consideration of...
Mr Stanley Baldwin: This has been a very interesting discussion, though two subjects that have been mentioned by many Members are not subjects directly connected with the Bill. One is the remuneration of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the other is the question of Members' salaries. With regard to the latter point, I propose to say a few words before I have finished. With regard to the first point, I do not...
Mr Stanley Baldwin: I fully appreciate the suggestion of the hon. Member. The matter had not escaped my notice, and arrangements are already being made for the new writs to fill the pending vacancies to be moved in the House at a very early date.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: No approach has been made to His Majesty's Government by other Governments regarding the possibility of an international agreement on trade matters, although various informal interchanges of views have taken place. His Majesty's Government and the French Government have inquired of the Belgian Prime Minister whether he would be willing to undertake preliminary informal investigations in...
Mr Stanley Baldwin: We are, of course, fully aware of it.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: We do not close our minds to those matters.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: Yes, Sir. I received the manifesto from the General Secretary of the Council of Action for Peace and Reconstruction on 16th December last year. A reply was sent to the General Secretary on 16th January.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: I will call the attention of my right hon. Friend to the matter.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: I am afraid in the present state of public business I cannot afford a special opportunity for the discussion of this Motion.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: The answer which I have just given is on all fours with one I gave yesterday. It is impossible in the next few weeks to find any time, but I would remind the hon. Member that this matter can be most suitably raised at any time when the Ministry of Pensions Vote is brought before the House. The case can then be put and answered, and I think that that would be much the best way to deal with it.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: The scope of the agenda of the Imperial Conference as already announced is, I think, sufficiently wide to admit the general discussion of this question if the Governments represented at the conference so desired.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: Monday: Second Reading of the Ministers of the Crown Bill and Committee stage of the necessary Money Resolution; Committee and remaining stages of the Army and Air Force (Annual) Bill. Tuesday: It is proposed to move Mr. Speaker out of the Chair on going into Committee of Supply on the Civil and Revenue Departments Estimates, and to consider Class VII, Buildings Votes 10 and 8, in Committee....
Mr Stanley Baldwin: No, Sir. We have, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, to get that Bill by the end of the month, and, if it should be that the proceedings on the Ministers of the Crown Bill are concluded in good time, we should hope to make progress with it.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will put that question down.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: That does not help me to answer a question of which I have not had notice.
Mr Stanley Baldwin: As compared with pre-war rates there has been an increase, in money terms, of the remuneration of the several Services of the Crown. But I can see no close analogy between Government employment and membership of the House of Commons. As regards the second part of the question, I note the suggestion made by my hon. and gallant Friend, but I should not care to commit myself to any statement...
Mr Stanley Baldwin: I shall want notice of that question.
