The Report of the Select Committee on the House of
Commons (Admission of Strangers) was issued last Friday. The Committee, which consisted of Mr. Buchanan (chair- man), Messrs. Fenwick, W. Redmond, Shackleton, Stuart, Stuart-Wortley, and Lord "Talent's, were only nominated
on December 7th, and have certainly lost no time in sub- mitting their Report. Premising 'that the existing regula- tions admit of substantial improvement, while admitting the bApossibility of devising rules "which an ingenious man or woman bent on disorder cannot succeed in evading," the Com- mittee make a number of recommendations, of which three are of outstanding importance. The first is that tickets of admission should be issued subject to an undertaking on the part of the visitor to abstain from interruption or disturbance and to obey the rules for the maintenance of order in the galleries. Secondly, the Committee recommend that an Act of Parlia- ment should be passed as soon as possible rendering such disturbances an offence cognisable by the ordinary Criminal Courts, the responsibility of ordering a prosecution to rest -with the Speaker. Thirdly, while approving of the continued admission of ladies to the Ladies' Gallery provided they are accompanied by a Member and give the undertaking men- tioned above, the Committee think it would be desirable, as a convenience to the public and in the interests of order, for men and women alike to be admissible to the Members' Gallery, subject to the consent of the House to the change. The minor recommendations which occupy the rest of the Report can all be carried out by the authority of the Speaker.
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