During recent years unofficial meetings in committee rooms upstairs have
become increasingly important in the life of Parliament. The great Conservative majority often prefers to thrash out its internal controversies in private On the face of them such proceedings are open to no objection. But in the present state of parties these gather- ings assume an unprecedented importance. A Minister whose policy is suspect may deliver his real defence upstairs instead of on the floor of the House. The Opposition parties have their own methods of making their view known, while their leaders in time of war have fairly frequent access to the Prime Minister. None of these advantages are enjoyed by Government supporters who do not carry the Conservative label. These Members are like non-collegiate students at one of the ancient universities. They pay their university dues; they attend the official lectures, and sit for their examinations, but they enjoy none of the amenities of collegiate life. Their sense of exclusion found expression this week in a question by Mr. Henderson Stewart. The Prime Minister, in reply, was not unsympathetic, and indi- cated that, if a general desire was shown, all-party meetings might be arranged at which Ministers would be prepared to unburden themselves. Sir Archibald Sinclair, who dis- plays on these matters an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of precedents, reminded the House that Lord Kitchener addressed such a meeting shortly before he went on his last voyage.
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