The Select Committee on Procedure now sitting has drawn atten-
tion, momentarily at any rate, to an important and singularly able public servant of whom normally next to nothing is heard. Most people know that such an official as the Clerk of the House of Commons exists, but not many people outside the House could give the name of the present holder of the office. The column The Times devoted to Sir Gilbert Campion's evidence at the last meeting of the Committee does something to rectify that, but in fact the memor- andum Sir Gilbert submitted, and the questions and answers arising from it, fill just on forty closely-printed pages of the official verbatim report. No one living, I suppose, is so familiar with the procedure of the House, and in the lengthy cross-examination to which he was subjected Sir Gilbert, who is, of course, even more neutral in matters
of party than the Speaker, showed eqnal frankness in expressing his views (mainly adverse) on the Government's proposals for speeding up business and diplomacy in declining to express any views on what the Government should or should not do in given cases. While he prefers not to make suggestions of his own till the Committee has disposed of the Government's proposals, he will be prepared to submit a detailed plan later. It can be predicted with assurance that it will deserve careful consideration, based as it will be on long experience,
great wisdom and great ability. * * * *
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