QUESTIONS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
[To THE EDFTOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sia,—Is it not time for the patriotic members of all politic,i parties in the House of Commons to join together to give either the Speaker or a small Committee further control over the ques- tions asked by self-advertising and pro-German Paeificist Member- of Parliament, which are felt by all responsible persons to be injurious to the beet interests of the country during the war ? It is not only the original question, whioh may sometimes be com- paratively harmless if carefully answered, but it is the danger which may lie in prearranged supplementary questions. It has always appeared to me rather absurd that, whilst no question can be asked unless full notice is given, and it has been authorized by proper authority, any number of questions may be asked by irresponsible Members on the " lame plea " that they arise out of the answer to a question for which they have no apparent respon- sibility, and it is too late to prevent harm after the question he, been asked in the House of Commons; whilst in many cases they are prearranged and only an unobjectionable question is put in the Notice Paper, and of oouree questions can always arise out of a guarded or not fully answered reply to any vague or doubtful question. I am sure public opinion would support the Government if they asked the House of Commons to give further powers to some authority to plevent objectionable questions being placed on the Orders of the Day, or being asked in the House, if the respon- sible Minister had given private notice to the Speaker or Member that it could not be answered in the public interest; -whilst all supplementiry questions should be entirely suppressed except by the Member who was responsible for the original question and to which the Minister did not object to reply. Such powers would not only largely prevent questions which give real information to the enemy and afford foundation for injurious and misleading paragraphs in a hostile Press, as they are too often intended to do, but would save Ministers valuable time and often unnecessary attendance on the Treasury Bench, as well as a great deal of work to responsible officials of the Government Departments, u ho are taken away from necessary and more important work to prepare the answers for the Ministers themselves.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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