Oral Answers to Questions — West Indies – in the House of Commons at on 10 March 1943.
Major Sir Duncan McCallum
, Argyll
asked the Prime Minister whether in view of the fact that the Forestry Commission controls 603,000 acres of ground in Scotland, as against 459,000 in England, he will consider arranging for all Questions in this House concerning forestry matters in Scotland to be addressed to, and answered by, the Secretary of State for Scotland?
Mr Anthony Eden
, Warwick and Leamington
As indicated by my right hon. Friend the Deputy prime minister, in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for East Fife (Mr. Henderson Stewart) on 2nd February last, the future of forestry in this country is one of the many subjects already engaging the attention of His Majesty's Government, and I do not think that it would be appropriate to make the change proposed in the present arrangements.
Sir James Henderson-Stewart
, Fife Eastern
Would it not meet the position suggested in the Question if the functions of the Forestry Commission, as applied to Scotland, were vested in the Scottish Department of Agriculture?
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 office of Deputy Prime Minister is one that has only existed occasionally in the history of the United Kingdom. Unlike analogous offices in other nations, the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any of the powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence and there is no presumption that the Deputy Prime Minister will succeed the Prime Minister.
The post has existed intermittently and there have been a number of disputed occasions as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.
More from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom
