Oral Answers to Questions — Royal Navy. – in the House of Commons at on 6 March 1935.
Colonel Josiah Wedgwood
, Newcastle-under-Lyme
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of the expressed determination of the India Office to raise presently the case of the discriminatory land legislation in Zanzibar, he wishes to make any further statement on the matter raised by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Colonel Wedgwood)?
Mr Philip Lloyd-Greame
, Hendon
I am obliged to the right hon. Member for putting this question, as I inadvertently milled him in a supplementary answer, for which I apologise. The facts as regards communication between the India Office and my office are as stated in the reply of the Secretary of State for India on the 4th of March. The land alienation decree is not "discrimina Tory," and the right hon. Member will see from Mr. Menon's report that, while criticising the decree in certain respects, Mr. Mellon expresses the view that the objections of the Indian community rested, to some extent, on a basic misconception, and that India could not logically object to such legislation, which was based on an Indian model.
Colonel Josiah Wedgwood
, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Will the right hon. Gentleman make a fresh inquiry in Zanzibar as to whether this legislation is not in fact discriminatory
Mr Philip Lloyd-Greame
, Hendon
No. I have given the most careful consideration to that, and I have had reports, and I think, if the right hon. Gentleman studies the decree and, what is more, the way it is administered, he will see that it is neither in terms nor in practice discriminatory.
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.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
