Oral Answers to Questions — India. – in the House of Commons at on 29 May 1924.
Lieut. - Colonel Sir FREDERICK HALL:
47.asked the Prime Minister whether the statement of the Secretary of Stale for India as to the desirability of the Imperial Government getting into closer touch with the Non-Co-operation party in India was made with the approval of the Cabinet; if he will state whether the Government propose to take action in the direction of an extension of Home Rule in India; and when he proposes to make a statement as to the Government's policy in this matter?
Mr John Clynes
, Manchester Platting
I am not aware that the Secretary of State for India has made any statement in the language set out in the hon. and gallant Member's question. My noble Friend, with the approval of his colleagues in the Government, said in Another place, on the 26th February last that His Majesty's Government were earnestly desirous of availing themselves of any disposition towards effective con sultation, and were open to consider any practical proposals for establishing closer contact and betters understanding. In reply to the second part of the question, the Government are not at present prepared to make any proposals for action in the direction of an extension of Home Rule in India.
Lieut-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury
, Wolverhampton Bilston
Is this an example of the new methods of the Government communicating Cabinet decisions to the people in India?
Mr John Clynes
, Manchester Platting
It is not.
Viscount Curzon
, Battersea South
Are we to understand that the Government view with approval the action of the Secretary of State in communicating direct with this extremist leader in India?
Mr John Clynes
, Manchester Platting
My Noble Friend has not made any statement in the language set out in the question.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
During a debate members of the House of Commons traditionally refer to the House of Lords as 'another place' or 'the other place'.
Peers return the gesture when they speak of the Commons in the same way.
This arcane form of address is something the Labour Government has been reviewing as part of its programme to modernise the Houses of Parliament.
