15 MARCH 1940, Page 21

MR. BARR'S SPEECH must say that your Parliamentary correspondent did

me a great Injustice in your issue of March ist, in which, after referring to my numerous quotations, you added : " but whether his reading had included the Bill before the House was a question on which members were left in doubt." I venture to say that a careful reading of my speech will convince you that I am fairly familiar with the whole subject, and that my remarks were anything but irrelevant. The suggestion that possibly I had not read the Bill at all was without any foundation, and was unworthy of the high reputation of your journal. I would venture to remark as follows :

First, I was speaking on the Financial Resolution for the Bill, and on that stage it is out of order to go over, in detail, the provisions of the Bill, and it is always held that what is in order on the second reading is out of order on a financial resolution. Considerable latitude was given that day, but the broad fact remains.

Second, at our party meeting we resolved to concentrate on the Means Test, and that was what I did in every para- graph of my speech.

Third, no one has been more prominent than I have been in advocating better old age pensions, the removal of anomalies, pensions for spinsters, and the like. I am very often called on to address meetings in this connexion, and I am credited with very intimate knowledge of the whole subject. I am confident that if your reporter had known the position I hold in this regard, he would not have yielded to the tempta- tion to indulge in his cheap taunt—With high regard, I am,